Rapid hits: Part 1 of 3 --

(1) MEDIC NEEDED FOR VAUGHAN WILLIAMS'S LARK? [Oct. 9]
(2) ONE SOLOIST, MULTIPLE VIEWS OF VW'S LARK [Oct. 10]
(3) A WHOOSH OF MEMORY OF AN EPIC CLARINET GUY [Oct. 11]


(1) WHO LOVES A WHEEZING, WHINY, OR ASTHMATIC LARK?

While harking unto our musical larks, as I played with Haydn's I tripped over a snag that had somehow never caught me. -- Ken

Group I -- performances I own which share a particular oddness


Paul Robertson, violin; with the rest of the Medici Quartet (David Matthews, violin; Paul Silverthorne, viola; Anthony Lewis, cello). EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London, Jan. 16, 1976

István Kertész, violin; with the rest of the Festetics Quartet (Erika Petöfi, violin; Péter Ligeti, viola; Rezsö Pertorini, cello). Harmonia Mundi France, recorded in the Unitarian Church of Budapest, June-Dec. 1991

Simon Standage, violin; with the rest of the Salomon Quartet (Micaela Comberti, violin; Trevor Jones, viola; Jennifer Ward Clarke, cello). Hyperion, recorded Oct. 11-13, 1995

Hubert Buchberger, violin; with the rest of the Buchberger Quartet (Julia Greve, violin; Joachim Etzel, viola; Helmut Sohler, cello). Brilliant Classics, recorded in the Evangelische Burgkirche Nieder-Rosbach, Germany, May 17-19, 2007

Group II, or shall we say: (a) "Subgroup II-A"

Arvid Engegard, violin; with the rest of the Orlando Quartet (Heinz Oberdorfer, violin; Ferdinand Erblich, viola; Stefan Metz, cello). Emergo Classics, released 1995

Norbert Brainin, violin; with the rest of the Amadeus Quartet (Siegmund Nissel, violin; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello). DG, recorded in the Plenarsaal of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in the Residenz, Munich, March 1974

and then: (b) "Subgroup II-B"

Kenneth Sillito, violin; with the rest of the Gabrieli Quartet (Brendan O'Reilly, violin; Ian Jewel, viola; Keith Harvey, cello). Chandos, recorded in The Maltings, Snape (Surrey), England, Feb. 13-15, 1986

Vilmos Tátrai, violin; with the rest of the Tátrai Quartet (István Várkonyi, violin; György Konrád, viola; Ede Banda, cello). Hungaroton, recorded in Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, Sept. 28, 1975


MIGHT IT HELP IF WE WERE TO HEAR THE WHOLE
MOVEMENT? IT COULD AT LEAST BE WORTH TRYING

HAYDN: String Quartet in D, Op. 64, No. 5 (The Lark):
i. Allegro moderato

Group I  [Never mind for now the extra repeat that merely bulks up the two over-eight-minute versions (there can be too much of a good thing!)]


Medici Quartet (Paul Robertson and David Matthews, violins; Paul Silverthorne, viola; Anthony Lewis, cello). EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London, Jan. 16, 1976

Festetics Quartet (István Kertész and Erika Petöfi, violins; Péter Ligeti, viola; Rezsö Pertorini, cello). Harmonia Mundi France, recorded in the Unitarian Church of Budapest, June-Dec. 1991


Salomon Quartet (Simon Standage and Micaela Comberti, violins; Trevor Jones, viola; Jennifer Ward Clarke, cello). Hyperion, recorded Oct. 11-13, 1995

Buchberger Quartet (Hubert Buchberger and Julia Greve, violins; Joachim Etzel, viola; Helmut Sohler, cello). Brilliant Classics, recorded in the Evangelische Burgkirche Nieder-Rosbach (Germany), May 17-19, 2007

Subgroup II-A: maybe more "allegro" than "moderato"?


Orlando Quartet (Arvid Engegard and Heinz Oberdorfer, violins; Ferdinand Erblich, viola; Stefan Metz, cello). Emergo Classics, released 1995

Amadeus Quartet (Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel, violins; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello). DG, recorded in the Plenarsaal of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in the Residenz, Munich, March 1974

Subroup II-B: Vice versa -- maybe more "moderato" than "allegro"


Tátrai Quartet (Vilmos Tátrai and István Várkonyi, violins; György Konrád, viola; Ede Banda, cello). Hungaroton, recorded in Hungaroton Studio, Budapest, Sept. 28, 1975

Gabrieli Quartet (Kenneth Sillito and Brendan O'Reilly, violins; Ian Jewel, viola; Keith Harvey, cello). Chandos, recorded in The Maltings, Snape (Surrey), England, Feb. 13-15, 1986

Different as the Group I specimens are, they're all attempts at "period" performances, in instruments and performance practices. Meaning, for one thing, all gut strings -- and on a gut E-string there's not much chance of our poor lark getting off the ground, let alone soaring). And for another thing it means much-curtailed expressive devices, including little or no vibrato, so that especially when the line goes high or incorporates a held note, we get some species of flat, pallid sound -- a whine, or a wheeze, or maybe a siege of asthma.

But, you say, isn't this, you know, authentic? Isn't it what Haydn would have heard? To which all I can say is: not in his imagination, not a chance.

Okay, I can say this one thing more: It's hard to explain just how much the Lark Quartet has, since time unremembered, provided breathed comfort into the spaces of my psyche, but hear it this way and all the air whooshes out.

We're not done with Op. 64, No. 5 --

It just didn't help in getting where I want to get to be sidetracked by this formidable issue, which for me leads into a dead end. And under these conditions, the idea of adding more repeats seems to me, er, unhelpful, merely adding layers of soulless repetition. As we're going to hear, the effect is pretty deadly too in the oughtta-be-gorgeous little Adagio that follows the opening movement.

I'm thinking too that as long as we've found ourselves in the thick of one of the sets-of-six-works that were so popular in Haydn's time, we might take the opportunity to take at least a little look at how in his hands the six quartets of Op. 64 become in some ways a single 24-movement superstructure.


NEXT UP: Part 2 --

(2) ONE SOLOIST, MULTIPLE VIEWS OF VW'S LARK
[posts Tuesday at 10am ET]

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