AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE MAY/JUNE 2008
Portrait
-- Violin and Cello Duos
SCHULHOFF: Duo; MATESIC: Duo; GLIERE: 8 Pieces;
WETTSTEIN: Red Room; HANDEL: Passacaglia
Daria Zappa, v; Mattia Zappa, vc.
Guild 7313--60 minutes
The repertoire for violin and cello duo isn’t
large. There are significant works by Handel, Kodaly, Toch, Martinu, Honegger,
and Schulhoff--and one supreme masterpiece: the Ravel Sonata. This wonderfully
played and very-well-recorded anthology by Daria and Mattia Zappa includes the
Handel and Schulhoff as well as some lesser-known and new contributions to the
genre.
Handel’s Passacaglia in G Minor is an arrangement
(from his Harpsichord Suite 7) by Johan Halvorsen, a Norwegian (and nephew by
marriage of Grieg), and it’s been popular in this transcription with string
players ever since it was made. (Even Heifetz and Piatigorsky recorded it.) The
work has the directness, sturdy simplicity, and sonorous dignity typical of
Handel embodied in a formal outline that plays to his strengths and allows (in
Halvorsen’s transcription) for plenty of technical display, too. From 1909,
Reinhold Gliere’s Eight Pieces Opus 39 also uses baroque forms (prelude,
gavotte) along with later ones (scherzo, impromptu), though with some added
folksong inflections. This is an ingratiating cycle of miniatures, nicely
crafted and skillfully written for the instruments (Gliere was a violinist),
that blends neoclassic economy and romantic sentiment with unfailing charm. It’s
been recorded before on Koch Discover 920526 (Mar/Apr 1999) but never better
than here.
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) is a prolific Czech
composer whose music, though neglected after he was murdered by the Nazis in
World War II, has been rediscovered and widely recorded during the past decade.
He draws on many sources including Debussy and Ravel, Janacek, Hindemith, and
Schoenberg, as well as various kinds of vernacular music, but never fails to
project his own very distinct and very pungent personality. And his range of
mood is wide, as in his 1925 Duo. This is a splendid full-scale composition in
four movements that total 18 minutes. I is gracile, lithe, and elegant, with a
winsome modal flavor almost certainly indebted to (it almost quotes from)
Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello written only two or three years before
Schulhoff’s Duo. That this allusion is intentional is especially likely as
Schulhoff was a concert pianist who traveled and performed all around Europe and
kept up with all the latest music and musical trends. II, marked “Zingaresca”,
overflows with brio and invention, bustling and capering along with joyous high
spirits, bouncy ostinatos, and all sorts of striking “gypsy” effects such as
strummed and left-hand pizzicatos, whiplash glissandos, knocking col legno,
bouncing spiccato bowings, and ultra-high harmonics. The third-movement
andantino spins out long, sighing melodic lines over slow, steady-paced
accompaniment with a typically Schulhoffian sort of melancholy. The finale is
complex and unpredictable, counterposing slow and fast music (derived from the
earlier movements) that encompasses both sad reflection and dance-like abandon.
Schulhoff’s Duo has been recorded several times before, but the Zappas offer an
ideal equilibrium of technical panache, sensitivity, and clarity surpassing that
of any other performances I’ve heard.
Two newish works complete the program. First is
Martin Wettstein’s Roter Raum from 1998. This translates to “Red Room” but given
this 7-minute scherzo’s concentration on raspy circular motion--whirligig rapid
for the most part--it might be better rendered as “Roter Rooter”. It certainly
gives the Zappas plenty of opportunity to show their stuff; the blazing-fast
skyrockets of overlapping harmonics just before the end (at 6:08) are
breathtaking.
More substantial and serious is Massimiliano
Matesic’s ten-minute Duo from 2004. Matesic, born in Italy in 1969 (and now
better known as a conductor), writes in a highly-chromatic idiom infused with a
fevered, late-romantic-early-modern intensity that recalls Berg more than anyone
else. Indeed his Duo begins with and developes a sinuous five-note motive, first
sung in the cello under low, murmuring double-stops in the violin, akin to the
opening figures of Berg’s Opus 3 String Quartet and of Bartok’s Second String
Quartet. Like those great predecessors, Matesic’s Duo conveys the haunting and
haunted end-of-an-era decadence and morbid, thanatropic longing of early
expessionism as it winds its way through restless unease and the struggle for
ecstatic release before finally subsiding into darkening gloom. The work’s
timbral variety and contrapuntal density create a sound-world of much greater
complexity and scope than would seem possible with only two string instruments,
and its balance of fantastic elaboration with forward-driving purpose and
compelling structural logic is maintained with unfaltering consistency and
confidence. This is demanding but deeply rewarding music of great beauty, power,
and depth of emotion, especially thrilling in this marvelous performance by the
Zappas.
In short: a recital that ranks as one of the best
chamber music discs so far this year--and revelatory for those who want to hear
what just two string players can do.LEHMAN
Dear Mattia,
I was driving
back from the airport in New York when I heard your recording of the Schulfhoff
duo on our public radio station.
You
performance was just beautiful - soulful interpretation, full bodied sound
supported by a wonderful technique and a wonderful recording that makes one want
to reach out and grab the sounds. I can't wait to listen to the complete CD.
Daniel Alcheh
Composer, New
York
Portrait –
violin and cello duo
Massimiliano MATEŠIC
(b. 1969)
Duo per Violino e Violoncello (2004) [10:11]
Reinhold GLIČRE
(1875-1956)
Huit morceaux, Op. 39 (1909) [17:46]
Martin WETTSTEIN
(b. 1970)
Zyklus – Second Movement; Roter Raum (1998) [6:32]
Erwin SCHULHOFF
(1894-1942)
Duo für Violine und Violoncello (1925) [17:21]
Georg Frederic HANDEL
(1685-1759)
Passacaglia from Harpsichord Suite No.7 HWV 432 arr.
Johan HALVORSEN
(1875-1935)
[7:36]
Daria
Zappa (violin)
Mattia Zappa (cello)
rec. Auditorio Stelio Molo, Lugano, 2002-05
GUILD
GMCD 7313
[59:57]
The Zappas are Swiss,
and brother and sister; she plays the violin, he the cello. Daria is a member of
the strangely named casalQUARTET which, when it’s not being orthographically
obscure, is a good string quartet. Cellist Mattia is a recitalist and a member
of the Zurich Tonhalle.
They’ve constructed a
finely balanced programme for Guild. There are two world premieres one of which,
by Matešic, was written for the Zappas, the seldom-performed Gličre pieces, the
classic Schulhoff duo and that well-known virtuoso standby, the Handel-Halvorsen
Passacaglia.
Gličre’s Eight Morceaux
were written in 1909 and are a pleasing mix of baroque and romantic. The Gavotte
is a dainty piece of baroque invention with a delicious contrasting folkloric
drone section. There’s a touching Berceuse, a salon-light Canzonetta and a
wittily deployed Scherzo with unison attacks and good dynamic range. The finale
Etude is quicksilver – a show-off end to an enjoyable and amusing,
none-too-serious collection.
Schulhoff’s has racked
up quite a number of recordings by now and rightly so. The Zappa performance
grew on me gradually. I still think their opening Moderato movement is lacking
in a bit of inside knowledge. It’s neither as deadpan as the best Czech
performances nor as personal either. But they do tear into the Zingaresca
with tremendous panache and make the Supraphon team of Pavel Hůla and Václav
Bernášek sound rather staid. Bernášek incidentally must have played and recorded
this as much as anyone. In his Praga recording with Antonín Novák he sounds more
at home and strikes a very Zappa-like pose in this movement. The Zappas don’t
press too hard in the Andantino. Other pairings have been more emotive
here but I rather liked the Zappa approach in the end. It makes structural and
emotive sense and it’s splendidly played.
Martin Wettstein’s
Roter Raum is the second movement of his Zyklus, written in 1998. The
composer’s note mentions contemplative oracles, blacked out rooms and colours.
To replicate the compositional process I dismissed my family, shut the door,
turned off the lights and listened. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to experience
much beyond some rollicking jazz-cello, hints of folkloric drive – Bartók maybe
– and some brittle, rather juddery writing. Enjoyable nonetheless.
The other premiere is
longer and dedicated to the duo. Matešic’s 2004 Duo opens with powerful violin
ostinati and accompanying cello figures that soon develop a powerful and vivid
drive. There are strong hints of rustic barbarity along the way and also of
Bergian influence. The slow section generates an expressionist angst and offers
plenty of room for expressive playing – all duly taken.
I only wish that this
talented duo had resisted the temptation to indulge some overly hushed
pianissimi in the Handel-Halvorsen.
Persuasively played and
warmly recorded this disc also has the benefit of some good notes. The two
contemporary composers’ notes are helpful as well. Esoteric though this
combination is the performances are highly assured and I valued the playing.
Jonathan
Woolf
Page revised Monday April 28 2008
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