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American Originals - Ives & Barber: String Quartets

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I'm not sure if I could think of two American composers who have less in common than Charles Ives and Samuel Barber. One was the ultimate craggy individualist, completely American to his toes and a fascinating mix of the homespun amateur and the modernist. The other was the ultimate professional composer, possessed of a finely honed technique and a romantic sensibility that made him one of the most popular and beloved, and least "American" sounding composers of his generation. And yet, as this disc attests, the two can sit side by side on the same disc without shame. Especially in vigorous performances like the ones the Emerson quartet give here.

The String Quartet in b minor is Samuel Barber's only foray into the form, one that for him was probably not as congenial as other genres. Though possessed of a marvelous facility for harmony and counterpoint, Barber always seems better with the bigger tonal palette of the orchestra, or at least the presence of a piano in his music. His genius is less individual in this work, at least in the opening and closing movements. The Quartet begins with a brisk Allegro in a solid, conservative neo-classical style. This music returns again in the Finale, though much more briefly stated. In between, though is the gem of the piece; the Adagio which was immortalized by the composer in his arrangement for string orchestra. It is a masterpiece of long sustained melody and inspired contrapuntal writing. In this less familiar version, the work looses some of the passion present in the string orchestra version, but seems more personally tragic, more introspective. This is a lovely work and comes by it's immense popularity honestly.

The Ives works much different, though a careful listening to either string quartet gives the lie to the notion that Ives was an autodidact or basically unschooled. The First Quartet was written in 1896 while Ives was finishing up his studies with Horatio Parker at Yale. The musical idiom is late German Romanticism, with strong influences of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. Yet the work is distinctive in a way that Ives' First Symphony is not. For one thing, Ives uses Protestant Revival hymns in this work, which he was careful to avoid in the Symphony, knowing it would incur the wrath of the Euro-centric Parker. This work also shows a greater sense of craft than the symphony, and a more individual sense of harmony, probably also derived from the homespun harmonies of the hymns. The work opens with a magnificent fugue based on the Missionary Hymn, which will eventually make up the third movement of his massive Fourth Symphony. Other movements are equally beautifully done. The over all impression left by this quartet is of a fresh and original Romantic voice, already outshining the more established American composers of his time. Had Ives continued in this style, he could well have been as beloved as Copland or other American composers of later generations.

While the First Quartet still has it's roots in the harmonic practice of the 19th century, the Second Quartet is a more modernist affair, though in program as Romantic as anything Ives ever did. The Quartet is constructed in three movements - Discussion - Argument - Contemplation. Ives provided a programme for the work which he believed showed the bond between four men who, "converse, discuss, argue (in re: Politick), fight, shake hands, shut up - then walk up the mountain side to view the firmament!" The work is a joyously democratic piece, even celebrating the messiness of democracy. The first movement is mostly slow and extremely dissonant. It gradually builds to a climax in which four tunes are quoted, representing political points of view. In the second movement, everything busts loose. The quartet can't seem to agree on anything, what music to play, what tempo to take. The second violinist, who takes on the character of "Rollo", the name Ives used for anyone who embodied overly refined society, tries to inject a sugary cadenza and is immediately shouted down by the rest of the quartet. The chaos reached a fevered and humorous pitch, with Rollo insistently scrapping away at double stops as if he's having a tantrum while snippets of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky fight for dominance, and finally the political themes reappear in full battle gear and the movement draws to a scratchy and furious conclusion.

But the final movement puts the entire piece into perspective. This is Ives at his most sublime. Otherworldly dissonances start the movement, which gradually builds to the viola's statement of the hymn Nearer My God To Thee, mixed with strains that recall the bells of Westminster Abbey. These themes are then slowly and majestically drawn into a shining D major coda, as if to say that after all the fighting and all the arguments, this alone is what matters, ascending the mountains to see the world in all it's glory and to walk ever closer with God. A more profound statement on the ultimate importance of politics I could not imagine.

The Barber Quartet has a number of competitors on disc, the Ives has fewer. For whatever reason, the Ives Quartets aren't as "sexy" as other Ives works like the Concord Sonata. But in any case the Emerson Quartet fairs well with the repertoire, equaling readings by Kronos and the Linsay Quartet and in the Ives I find them superior to the Lydian Quartet and the Mondrian Quartet. This is a fine release and worthy to be purchased for anyone interested in fine works by fine American composers!

This is one of my favorite discs. The Ives Scherzo is played with precision and drive. The Ives 2d quartet is beautiful throughout. The first movement of the Barber is just flawless, so wonderfully played it's simply inspiring. The Adagio has been nicely integrated into the whole work, and doesn't assume a life of it's own. If you internalized the adagio and came across the first/third movement later, you may not like this adagio. Nonetheless, it is done correctly: Emerson maintains rhythmic consistency and doesn't indulge in unnecessary rubato, which indeed makes any rubato that much more dramatic. It's a very powerful performance of the quartet, and one of the warmer renditions of the secondary theme of the first movement and the adagio. Needless to say, Emerson also nails the first Ives quartet.

I suppose the main attraction here are the Ives quartets, which may not be among his stronger works but certainly deserve to be represented in the catalogue in such excellent performances as these. The first quartet dates from 1896 and is really a student work based on the use of a variety of hymn-tunes - it is surprisingly variegated in terms of moods and textures nonetheless. It is, in short, a very interesting work which rewards repeated listening (some of the material used here can also be found again in later Ives, e.g. the third symphony). The performances could perhaps have been a touch warmer and more affectionate, but overall the work receives outstanding advocacy from the Emersons - superbly controlled and giving us some real technical wizardry, a wide range of colors, wonderfully nuanced textures and a thorough understanding of the idiom.

The second quartet was penned in 1913 and is very different in style; the first two movements are titled `Discussions' and `Arguments', respectively, and display the Ivesian style at its most abrasive and dissonant (`Arguments' suggests Bartok quartets not yet written at the time of its composition); the Emersons play with fire and fervor and manage to realize the excitement as well as a remarkable range of colors and nuances - but it seems to me that they miss the irony and sarcasm. The final movement, `The Call of the Mountains' is superbly done, however, from the chilly outset to its glittering climax. The Scherzo is a brief study piece in rhythmic juxtapositions and even if it is Ives at his most Ivesian, it is not particularly memorable.

In between we get a superb reading of the more introvert and conservative Barber quartet with the famous Adagio (which sounds more effective for full string orchestra, I have to admit). It is not among Barber's more convincing works, even though the outer movements also contain some fine ideas, skillfully developed and delivered with panache and understanding by the Emersons. This, then, is a very recommendable release, given in fine sound quality. We certainly don't get the last word on the Ives, but that shouldn't really be expected, I guess, and I suspect that these performances can compete with most other versions around (even if my familiarity with those is severely limited) - few quartets today can claim technical brilliance to equal the Emersons, and even if technical brilliance isn't everything in Ives, it certainly matters.

I really liked the performance of the Samuel Barber string quartet. If played well, this, and other of Barber's pieces assume their true position of great, great importance within the American and, most especially, Euro-American composers repertoires.

He is one of the most important composers.

We can hear this here though one could also leave this recording aside after listening to it not knowing the work's great importance as, greater than the identification of the work as such, there is a lovely and incredible personalness from the players in the identifying with this work which they realise is very great (and so do we). Then also what they do is they demonstrate or exhibit a very, very special uniqueness of this piece itself for which I would give the recording 98 or 99 out of 100. It doesn't claim to be definitive at all, the very opposite, and is joyous to listen to and much more. Indeed we seem to visit a vast and seemingly endless world of this.

Much of Charles Ives's music which I know, though I don't know much, I rate in a similar though more personal way though the music is more untouchable and remote to me and in terms of greatness and also, kind of importance, though sometimes I would state great importance.

I have to say that I don't find these performances very convincing or enlightening. I have tried for years to listen to these quartets by the Emmersons but have failed. I haven't heard any other recording of the quartets, which is my own fault. The first of the two pieces for four string instruments starts very well and is inducing and one assumes that the Emmersons are able in this territory, but I think they lose the piece entirely, without doubt, though at various points they convey fluency though this is even more irritating as one can't detatch oneself from the music then.

I have no idea what to make of the second quartet. After imagining, truly and not non-deeply that I was quite familiar and totally confluent with this piece, as it is challenging, for some time, over a year maybe, I realised after this that this was the very most disturbingly avante-garde piece that I had ever come across. And I can only describe it as such, it remains this, and without any extra favourable comments at all in support of the piece, after maybe eleven years.

I have to blame the Emmersons for this, and utterly so. It is the strangest occurrence in my complete familiarity with music.

Perhaps, though, the Barber performance is on a similar level of awe in the domain of a great "telling" for me in my experience, sometimes much more so and I think eternal wisdom is being expressed, and surely and with mature, great, masterly ease is in the expression.

I must get a new recording of the Ives quartets.