Fascinating String Quartets from an American Master
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/18/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Born in 1919, Leon Kirchner wrote his First Quartet in 1949 and his Fourth as recently as 2006 at the age of 87. There is a previous CD (also on the Albany label) of his 'complete string quartets' recorded in 1995 by the Boston Composers Quartet, but obviously it does not include the Fourth.
Kirchner studied with Bloch, Schoenberg and Sessions but he has never been doctrinaire in his compositional methods. His music is characterized by linear counterpoint, rhythmic complexity and always-interesting gesture. Although I am not generally a great fan of post-Schoenbergian music, I always find Kirchner's music to be both fascinating and beautiful. If I had to describe his music in a couple of words I would say that it is 'dissonant lyricism.' Although one does not go away humming his melodies, one still has the sense that something lyrical and poetic is being conveyed. Coupled with that is impeccable craft, a real sense of drama, an ability to move the music forward and at the same time create islands of repose. For a troglodyte like me his music, although sometimes difficult to grasp technically, is always intriguing and more often than not filled with passages of spiritual beauty.
Although they span an interval of fifty-seven years, the works are of a piece. That is to say, they clearly are all by the same composer. The First is perhaps the most influenced by the quartets of Bartók but one can sense some of that influence still in the Fourth. The Second is a bit more lean and more lyrical. Each of its four movements quotes from the preceding movements, always in a new and surprising way. The one-movement Third, which includes taped electronic sounds, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. The taped sounds are subtle, almost always gentle, and there is a so-called 'Tape Cadenza' in which the strings imitate the electronic sounds sotto voce. There is also a middle section in which the tape is silent. The Fourth, also in one movement, was written in response to Thomas Mann's 'Doktor Faustus' whose protagonist, Adrian Leverkühn, is a Schoenbergian composer. In his fine booklet notes Allen Shawn aptly describes the Quartet as 'a place where a kind of turbulent rapture reigns.'
The Orion Quartet, whose members are brothers Daniel and Todd Phillips, violins, Steven Tenenbaum, viola, and Timothy Eddy, cello, is one of the finest American quartets. It is hard to believe that it has been around for a quarter century -- but then I guess we're all getting older -- because I remember the quartet as being these vigorous young men whose enthusiasm for new music was palpable. That enthusiasm, coupled with immense skill, remains but the Orions are now middle-aged. Tempus has fugited, as it will.
Enthusiastically endorsed. You owe it to yourself to hear some Kirchner if you're not familiar with his music. And if you already know some of his music, this issue is self-recommending.
Scott Morrison"
Track Listings (4) - Disc #1