SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden” (arr. Lieberman); BARTOK: String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 7 (arr. Lieberman) – The American String Project – MSR Classics
by Audiophile Audition | Jul 6, 2008 | Classical CD Reviews |
SCHUBERT: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden” (arr. Lieberman); BARTOK: String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 7 (arr. Lieberman) – The American String Project – MSR Classics 1269, 69:41 [Distr. by Albany] ***:The America String Project (founded 9-11-01) is a conductorless orchestra on the pattern of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and like that group, the ensemble shifts the leadership position of concertmaster around, so that, respectively, Ani Kavafian and Jorja Fleezanis mold the Schubert and Bartok string orchestra arrangements by double-bass and principal founder, Barry Lieberman. Some years ago, I reviewed Jeffrey Tate’s string orchestra performance of Death and the Maiden in Mahler’s transcription; so, I wondered, why Lieberman felt the need to improve on Mahler’s adaptation. Lieberman answers my query in his liner note, in which he states he added bass fiddle parts in places Mahler felt the writing proved too challenging; also, Lieberman allows soli to enter the texture, as in Ani Kavafian’s elaborate, concertante playing in the trio of the Scherzo.
Both arrangements were recorded live in Benaroya Hall, Seattle, May 2007. The execution of the The American String Project proves quite facile, the homogeneity of sound and the seamless shifting of dynamic levels adjusted as one, so the expanded nature of the orchestration retains its essential, intimate nature. The graduated intensity of the variants on the song
Death and the Maiden, over a palpable bass pedal, achieve some febrile affects, a real tempestuousness of emotion. The
Presto sounds with a galloping urgency and muscular girth in which Schubert’s more haunted specters express themselves in “symphonic” terms. Some of the agonized harmonies in this rendition more than once invoke the poignant pages of Grieg’s
Holberg Suite.By Lieberman’s own admission, the adaptation of Bartok’s Op. 7 Quartet in A Minor “presented the most supreme challenge the Project has ever attempted.” The work, performed attaca, has no pauses between movements; while the sudden shifts in tempi and registration intra-movement, never relinquish their demands on the most talented solo players. Darkly moody and expressive, the A Minor as a chamber symphony aligns itself to the sound of the Divertimento for Strings and to the colors that Leo Wiener promoted at the Budapest Conservatory. Modal and brooding, the tonal world of youthful Bartok suggests both Albert Roussel and Henri Rousseau, each in his own medium a colorist of disturbing energies.
As in the Schubert, the solo violin–Jorja Fleezanis of the Minnesota Orchestra–intones an eerie and haunting melodic line. At one major cadence of the first movement, we can hear clearly the influence of the late Beethoven quartets, particularly Op. 131. The forward-looking harmonies of the big Allegretto movement more than suggest Shostakovich, their sharing that same martial, darkly ominous vision that Schiele, Munch, and Chirico portray in their respective pictures of the early 20th Century.
Ani Kalayjian provides the pained cello line, with accompanying kudos to violas Joseph Gottesman and David Harding. The last movement,
Allegro vivace, expands the Magyar affect, both aggressive and bittersweet, the intensity extreme. Suddenly, the music breaks off one-third of the way in its journey, the music taking a recitativo or two from Beethoven and allowing the solo cello to speak. We readily expect a
fugato to follow, here in nervous, gypsy style. Wry, ironic passages alternate with shifting elements of darkness, the mix becoming a sizzling Slavonic paste. When the brew settles, Fleezanis intones a dirge for troubled times; then, to quote the poet, “the darkness drops again.” Even some aerial transports into the major cannot quite alleviate the angst this superheated live performance has managed to impart to us, and the aroused audience quite agrees.
— Gary Lemco
