K. A. HARTMANN String Quartet No. 1. BARTÓK String Quartet No. 4 * Zehetmair Quartet * ECM 1727 (43:01)
SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht. VERESS 4 Transylvanian Dances. BARTÓK Divertimento for String Orchestra * Thomas Zehetmair, cond; Camerata Bern * ECM 1714 (64:48)
Karl Amadeus Hartmann's First String Quartet was written in 1934, when he was not yet 30. It is strongly influenced by Bartók's 1927 Fourth Quartet; indeed, it could pose as a long-lost work of the Hungarian master. After a long, slow, Bergian introduction, the opening movement shares the intense ferocity of Bartók's middle works. The following movement is a series of muted, minimal, downward gestures; Bartók reappears in an agonized, highly syncopated finale. By this time, Hartmann had withdrawn from public life and culture in Germany, going underground until the Nazi regime was overthrown; this is anguished music, certainly music of protest. Although he may have been writing purely for himself, the work was read if not performed in Belgium, where it won a 1935 composition prize, giving him his first public success.
Thomas Zehetmair has made a major career as solo violinist; he founded his string quartet in 1977, joined by Ulf Schneider, Ruth Killius, and Françoise Groben. They give an intense, committed reading that makes the most of Hartmann's difficult music, and they do equal honor to Bartók. There has been one previous recording of the Hartmann piece, by the Pellegrini Quartet, coupled on a cpo disc with his only other string quartet. Paul Rapoport (18:1) wished "they were more vigorous in parts and projected more of the emotional grip which the scores suggest." In the following issue, John Wiser praised them for having "this quality of full presence and understanding." There is certainly no lack of vigor or emotion in these performances, and ECM's recorded sound captures every sinew.
In contrast, the 15 instrumentalists of Camerata Bern give us a light, delicate Verklärte Nacht. The only water in Dehmel's poem is "you drift with me on a cold sea," but these lovers are walking beside a swiftly flowing stream with occasional rapids. We view them from the opposite bank, their passion and her revelation somewhat distanced. There is no heavy breathing here, and little soul-searching. It adds up to yet another interesting interpretation of this many-faceted work.
Sándor Veress (190792) was a Bartók piano student and assistant in folk-music research. He emigrated to Bern, which explains why most recordings of his music appear on the Musiques Suisses label, including another performance of these dances by this ensemble. The music is strongly folk oriented, but it's a good thing that it comes before the Divertimento on this disc, as it can also be viewed as watered-down Bartók.
Conductor Zehetmair's easygoing approach finally comes a cropper in the Divertimento. The small ensemble lacks precision and potency in the Allegros, and the Largo has little tension. All my favorite performances of this great work have been deleted from the catalog: Solti and the Chicago Symphony on London, György Gyzriványi-Rath on Hungaroton, and--best of all--Hugh Wolff on Teldec. I have not heard Boulez and the Chicago on DG, but Andrew Quint calls it a "masterful 1993 account" in 24:1. This is a disappointing disc from a label that so often gets things just right. I have not seen the booklets for either disc, as Fanfare was sent prepublication copies.
