Janácek: String Quartet No. 1, "Kreutzer Sonata"
Haas: String
Quartet No. 2, "From the Monkey Mountains"
Szymanowski: String Quartet No.
2
(all arranged for string orchestra by
Richard Tognetti)
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti
(violin, director)
Chandos
On paper, this program might not look particularly promising. Of all
the string quartets to adapt for orchestral forces, Janácek's First would
probably be near the bottom of most people's lists. Of course there's an
established tradition of such transcriptions, from Mahler's orchestration of
Beethoven's Op. 95 to Rudolf Barshai's of Shostakovich's Eighth Quartet. But
it's a tricky equation to balance: on the one hand, in a string orchestra you
have a greater range of textures and dynamics to play with; on the other, the
string quartet is such an intensely self-sufficient medium that to expand it is
to risk watering it down.
Richard Tognetti is well aware of the pitfalls, and in his transcription of the Janácek he makes canny use of solo instruments, with the strings of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (just 17 players) cushioning and enriching the textures to opulent but never overbearing effect. The second movement, for instance, sounds more eerie in its single-string original, but the full version has a kind of sepia-tinted melancholy that is very moving. Similarly, the solo viola and cello opening of the third movement (a motif that relates to a theme from Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata) is greeted not by a pair of sul ponticello violins but by a whole crowd of them, cackling like hags. The textures of Tognetti's arrangement become most orchestral in the finale, and the depth added by a single double bass adds a note of poignancy.
That this orchestral version of Janácek's quartet works so well as a musical experience is due not only to Tognetti's sensitive approach but also to the superb playing of his band. The ACO's discipline is impressive, but it's the group's warmth and enthusiasm that makes these performances so outstanding — and that's just as true in the Haas and Szymanowski.
Pavel Haas was a student of Janácek who perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944. His Second Quartet, "From the Monkey Mountains," dates from a happier time (1925) and its title derives from a summer holiday he'd spent in the Moravian highlands. To judge from this rumbustious performance, a good time was had by all — just listen to the wonderfully twanging bass in the finale, "A Wild Night." The unruly lurching of the cart in the second movement ("Cart, Driver and Horse") is striking in this orchestral guise, and the players here really relish the abundant glissandos. Haas offers pause for thought in "The Moon and I," opening with an insidious motif that can haunt you for days; this movement offers yet another example of Tognetti making the most of the possibilities of the string orchestra texture, with beautifully wrought solo passages set against a plummy orchestral backdrop.
In the ACO's realization of Szymanowski's alluring dreamscape, ardor
and percussiveness alternate to dramatic effect. And Chandos's warm recording
sets off an extremely attractive disc. The highest compliment that can be paid is that
these don't sound in any respect like transcriptions.
