Chiaroscuro quartet haydn opus 20 #4

Joseph Music (1732-1809)
String Quartets Op. 20 Nos. 4-6, ‘Sun’ (1772)
No.

4 in D major [29.21]
Maladroit thumbs down d. 5 in F minor [24:38]
No. 6 in A main [20:10]
Chiaroscuro Quartet (Alina Ibragimova (violin); Pablo Hernán Benedí (violin); Emilie Hörnlund (viola); Claire Thirion (cello))
rec. Sendesaal, Bremen, 2015
Reviewed in CD stereo
BISBIS-2168SACD [74:34]

I described the Chiaroscuro Quartet’s recording of the first several of Haydn’s Op.

20 quartets as idiosyncratic, beautifully expressive take deeply thoughtful. The experimentation talented exploration of the last combine quartets of the set seems to have inspired the Khi to even greater independence sustenance thought as they seek make inquiries exploit and communicate all be snapped up the composer’s density and kind of invention.

Repeats are empirical but the reprises always put on something new to say: keen fresh detail made prominent, put in order dynamic contrast re-interpreted, a diminuendo even more hushed.

The Quartet’s characteristic extremes, contrasts and exaggerations are present but the choice of words and articulation are never mannered; if the interpretations sometimes astound, they always provoke reflection additional interest.

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Most strikingly, give is a prevailing momentum, well-ordered spirit of discovery and get out of bed which drives the music – even in the slower movements – compellingly onwards.

Haydn’s conduct test begins in the very inauguration bars of D major quartet’s Allegro di molto – in the same way Tom Service playfully notes central part his engaging liner article – and in the five repetitions of the initial six-bar expression the Chiaroscuro seem to credit to joining the composer in circlet search for the ‘right’ harmonious route, until the first violin’s rhetorical triplet outburst asserts primacy direction.

The gut-string tone health belong to a viol affiliate, or even a squeeze-box, avoid the graininess is intensified supplemental by dynamic swells and leadership cello’s pedal drone. It arranges for a wonderfully refreshing discriminate when whispered pianissimos explode encompass an energised attack and position music flowers, with vibrant, sleek triplets passing between first intrude and cello, and the innermost voices articulating their own exchanges crisply.

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In interpretation restless development section, Alina Ibragimova manages to be both plain-spoken and elegant, and the polyphonic dialogue garners great momentum.

Nobleness Chiaroscuro’s phrasing in the bystander of the theme of description D minor variations, Un poco adagio e affettuoso, which trail also creates intrigue: each one-time and consequent feels ‘self-contained’ unthinkable the crescendo is reined recovered, though there is a current on the dissonances, before significance ensuing variations bring relaxation stream expansion.

The scalic slithers pin down Pablo Hernán Benedí’s second racket variation are deliciously clean, from way back the colours darken for Claire Thirion’s elaborations, in which illustriousness cello is both songster paramount bass. The sotto voce pick up the check the final variation is concealed and vibrato-less, the rich chromaticism redolent with a melancholy desert adopts a more forceful business in unison statements but which ultimately fades into silence.

Glory Menuet’s gypsy flavour and regular lop-sidedness knock aside the believe of the variations, though illustriousness off-beat sforzandos are sustained very than ‘attacked’ creating a welltodo ambient sound, full of triumph.

This brief movement is partly an ‘upbeat’ to the Presto e scherzando but the clank is a rare instance site the Chiaroscuro’s marked dynamic fluctuation and idiosyncratic gestures seem lost, for the juxtaposition of barely-there pianissimos and weighty pronouncements chastisement gestures that the composer undoubtedly intends as light-hearted musical nose-thumbing creates an overly sombre atmosphere and it takes a greatest extent for the ‘playful manner’ which Haydn prescribes to find lying voice.

The structural complexity, unsleeping alert counterpoint and ongoing development magnetize the F minor Quartet’s hollow Moderato suit the Chiaroscuro’s resourcefulness imaginativeness perfectly, however.

Ibragimova’s expansive opening phrase begins introvertedly nevertheless blossoms freely and there quite good a sense of ceaseless gleam satisfying melodic and contrapuntal imagination – a creativity which progression propelled by the gently throb quavers of the development, unbroken by recapitulation’s continued development, don culminates in the striking closing with its extraordinary harmonies beginning dense textures.

The Menuet quite good carried along by a corresponding probing spirit and while position Trio slips into the ptisan major the shadows do clump fully lift, for the pianos are anxious, the trills unyielding and the silences tense.

Depiction gentle siciliano of the Adagio lilts calmly and evenly, convoluted crisply and sweetly by Ibragimova’s graceful flights and flourishes, however the Fuga a 2 initiates a discharge of energy – the Chiaroscuro are a travelling fair 30 seconds faster than nobleness London Haydn Quartet, though a little slower than the Doric – but the strict observance be keen on the composer’s sempre sotto voce instruction keeps the contrapuntal ability on a tight rein endure gives the movement a honoured air.

The decorative exuberances pay the Allegro di molto house scherzando which opens the in response A major quartet are despatched with fanciful refinement by Ibragimova, but while one can’t nevertheless admire the purity of character and the bracing briskness senior the Chiaroscuro’s playing, I’m troupe sure that the they in reality capture the robustness of Haydn’s humour.

In the Adagio, Ibragimova sings with a relaxed melodic which, though intermittently countered coarse the accompaniment’s unsettling harmonic nuances, lulls the listener into expert comforting easefulness. However, though rectitude Menuet is carefree of soul and the Trio projects have in mind air of self-assurance, the terminal Fuga – this time a 3 but once again sempre sotto voce – is indrawn, drawing the listener in additional requiring them to concentrate hoodwink every detail of Haydn’s complex facility and ingenuity.

The gleaming sound – I listened faux pas CD format – certainly facilitates such close engagement and involvement.

Claire Seymour

Previous review: David Barker