Clarinet, Horn

In the last 30 years, the relationship between the leading Czech string quartets and Janáček two String Quartets has evolved markedly. The best Czech performers have always produced fine recordings of these extraordinary works, but more recent generations of players have pursued a different level of engagement. While performances such as that of the Talich Quartet (2005) show remarkable insight, recordings by other quartets, such as the Haas and ≤kampa, grapple with the passion and drama, occasionally even sadism in these turbulent works. The Pražák Quartet has an international reputation in Czech repertoire, in particular for their Dvořák their new recording of Janáček’s Quartets shares many of their fellow ensembles’ keen engagement with the composer’s language.

All things Mozart have been said and done, you’d think. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. On a daily basis new findings are added to the research portfolio, not only with regards to the famous Salzburgian’s life – hasn’t that been dissected to death? – but also about each and every one of his compositions, continuously getting reframed, analyzed and compared. The exegesis of the Mozartverse is a full-time job to many. The works on this recording alone raise a bunch of questions of which several remain unanswered.

Richter's austere and transcendent rendition of Beethoven Sonatas has no comparison. Reiner Maria Rilke wrote apt analogy of Beethoven's towering achievement in Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge) and the exactly same can be said about Richter's incomparable performances. Highly recommendable, alongside Richter's legendary Leipzig Recital Richter in Leipzig (1963).

The music of Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi took a dive in concert program frequency after his death in the U.S. in 1960, when the fashion was for Bartók or still more progressive composers. It has been making a comeback, however, and this satisfying release by Britain's venerable Nash Ensemble, largely specialists in contemporary music, should only help it along. Dohnányi was classified as a conservative, and indeed there is a strong Brahmsian streak in his music.

Those used to hearing period instrument ensembles will know that the differences in sound color with modern instruments are not as dramatic with strings and winds as they are with the fortepiano. What they bring to us is a softer-grained string tone, to the point at times of lacking tension and projection, and more vivid and rough-hewn wind tone, especially from natural horn and bassoon (they sound almost kazoo-like here in their little exchange at 12:42 in the first movement). The use of period instrument also tends to go hand-in-hand with a choice of brisker tempos - not systematically, as this is a matter of interpretive choice, and there are plenty of counter-examples in Schubert's Octet itself, but this generalization finds a good example in the present version.