United Kingdom Brahms and R. Schumann: Schumann Quartet (Erik Schumann, Ken Schumann [violins], Veit Benedikt Hertenstein [viola], Mark Schumann [cello]), Pablo Barrágan (clarinet). Wigmore Hall, London, 7.2.2023. (MB)
Brahms – String Quartet No.3 in B-flat main, Op.67; Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115
R. Schumann – String Quartet No.2 in F main, Op.41 No.2
Brahms and Robert Schumann match, for a lot of causes, like a glove. Participation of the Schumann Quartet (named after its three Schumann brothers, not the composer) does no hurt both; nor certainly, on the proof of this live performance, does a visitor look from clarinettist Pablo Barrágan. This was a night of fantastic music-making all through, evidently appreciated by the Wigmore Hall viewers.
First up was the third and final of Brahms’s surviving string quartets. (He is claimed to have destroyed his first dozen, even twenty, makes an attempt, so fierce was his self-criticism, these first efforts having been made at Robert Schumann’s urging.) With the Schumanns, the primary motion and far of what was to observe wore their Beethovenian inheritance brightly. Even Brahms’s trademark metrical complexity appeared to spring to an uncommon extent from Beethoven’s syncopation. There was one thing of late Beethoven’s fragmentation too, from not less than the second group onwards, although there was by no means any denying Brahms’s personal voice within the work’s undergrowth. None of it, in fact, is remotely simple listening, and the event too us to larger extremes, no try made, fairly rightly, to easy the perimeters. The recapitulation appeared, in duly Beethovenian vogue, not less than as a lot a second improvement as a return.
I used to be struck, within the second motion, by the relish with which the gamers communicated Brahms’s melodic profusion: first led by Erik Schumann’s first violin, continuing to contain all. Still extra necessary was the creation of an emotional world, poised between tragedy and one thing extra affirmative, that engendered. Ghosts of the previous made their presence felt: not solely Beethoven, however Schumann, Bach, Schubert too. It was luminous, but unquestionably grounded. A extra turbulent third motion adopted, seemingly darker and lighter, typically by flip, typically directly. Veit Benedikt Hertenstein’s viola emerged, correctly, as first amongst equals, quickly rivalled by Mark Schumann’s cello. Restless till the tip, it ready a fantastic distinction with the post-Classicism in work and efficiency of the finale, allure no extra precluding depth than it will in Haydn. Serenity and pleasure have been exhausting gained, and all of the extra appreciated for that. Here was fulfilment, predicated on prior intense longing.
The first motion of Schumann’s F main Quartet, Op.41 No.2, heard him in notably post-Classical fashion too. The unhurried method of the Schumanns sounded excellent to me: Allegro vivace doesn’t imply the music ought to be harried, fairly the opposite. The theme of the second motion was extra inward, exuding all of the allure of a ‘characteristic’ piano piece. Variations provided individuality and cumulative unity. By distinction, the Scherzo and Trio’s depth and admittedly concerned character introduced a later, virtually Tchaikovskian Romanticism. The finale was delightfully puppy-like in character: a Haydn tribute, so it appeared, although with a Romantic coronary heart.
For the second half, we returned to Brahms, to the Clarinet Quintet. Poised and looking, the primary motion introduced the clarinet now as first amongst equals, although Barrágan would generously cede as required. Fuller texture mixed with nonetheless larger sense of chiaroscuro that attended a eager sense of kind — and, with that, an equally eager sense of the Mozartian perfection of late Brahms. The Adagio’s candy melancholy and resurgent ardour, painful of their recollections, contributed additional to an thought of ‘lateness’ that was something however maudlin. Romantic questing captivated within the Andantino, relative lightness of tone yielding ambiguously to darker impulses. Stoicism was the order of the day on the onset of the ultimate theme and variations, which unfolded with all of the complexity of a human being’s warring passions. The path taken appeared inevitable on the shut, although every part had been to play for throughout its course. This totally involving efficiency was adopted by an encore association, once more for clarinet quintet, of Schumann’s Abendlied: as soon as extra poised and with subtly convincing depth.
Mark Berry