Quasi Morendo (CD Review)

Music of Brahms, Sciarrino, and Pesson. Reto Bieri, clarinet; Meta4 (Antti Tikkanen, violin; Minna Pensola, violin; Atte Kilpeläinen, viola; Tomas Djupsjöbacka, cello). ECM New Series 2557 481 8082.

By Karl W. Nehring

I was going to open this review by saying something along the lines of, "people who are fans of Brahms probably are averse to auditioning music by composers who are new and strange to them." Upon a bit of further reflection, though, I realized that I myself am a fan of Brahms but in fact do indeed enjoy auditioning music by composers who are new and strange to me. That being said, though, I must confess that when I saw that ECM had sandwiched my beloved Brahms Clarinet Quintet between two slices of music by composers that were new and strange to me, I was a bit apprehensive. Still, I persisted.

Upon first hearing the first few measures of the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino's Let Me Die Before I Wake (the liner notes state that the title is taken from a book by Derek Humphry, an American advocate of euthanasia), the opening piece on this CD, I must confess that my apprehension level increased significantly. The sounds were ghostly – strange and otherworldly. I am quite familiar with the sound of a clarinet, as I used to play the clarinet and have enjoyed the sound of the clarinet on many, many recordings. But I had never heard one sound like this before.  It reminded me of Tuvan throat singing, with two notes – a high and a low – being played simultaneously by clarinetist Reto Bieri, who explain in the line notes that "with special grips, even with slight changes in the approach to the sound, it is possible to create particular multiphonics, through breathing and blowing (a big difference!) I can influence these sounds in the finest degree. How to explain this physically is really a mystery to me. And I am very happy that most of it is a mystery to me. That's the way it has to be, it's mysterious music and has to be mysterious." After my initial shock, I played the piece a few more times and began to appreciate its haunting and fascinating sounds, finding myself in awe at the ability of both composer Sciarrino and performer Bieri to create and navigate such a strange but wonderful musical landscape. This is music from the bardo.

Reto Bieri

Moving from the mysterious to the familiar, the next piece on this release is the Brahms Quintet in b minor, op. 115, which I would assume is music with which many who read this blog are familiar.  I myself have owned several recordings, back in the day on LP and now on CD. A quick check of my collection revealed the Shifrin/Chamber Music Northwest recording on Delos neatly filed where it belongs in a classical rack, but I failed to find the Stoltzman/Tokyo String Quartet version on RCA that is apparently piled in a box where is awaits refilling one of these days when I assemble the new CD rack that I bought months ago so I could accommodate my ever-growing collection. The Brahms is a piece near and dear to my heart and it is given a fine performance by Bieri and Meta4. Having demonstrated his amazing ability to create strange tones from his instrument in the Sciarrino, Bieri then demonstrates his ability to produce an amazingly pure-toned and virtuosic performance of the Brahms, matched in kind by the clean, precise, and well-balanced support of the string quartet. Indeed, my one very slight reservation about their version is that at times it seemed almost too pure, too clean – just a touch more warmth would have been welcome at times. Still, this is a breathtaking performance, well captured by the engineers, and it is a version to which I will often return in the future when I want to enter the autumnal world of the Brahms Quintet.

Meta4

The final piece on the program is Nebenstück for clarinet and string quartet by French composer Gérard Pesson. The title roughly translates as "next-to piece," and has been referred to as a "filtering of Brahms." The liner notes describe the piece as "an estranged instrumentation, or rather arrangement, for clarinet and string quartet, of the Ballade for Piano, Op. 10 No. 4, that Brahms composed in 1854."  To my ears, the music unfolds as a kind of dialogue between the clarinet and the strings, with the clarinet having a smooth, calming effect, while the strings sound more nervous and edgy, often being plucked. The overall result is a very affecting musical experience, haunting in the positive sense of the word. The piece ends in a kind of fading sigh, a dying breath, or perhaps just a memory of some mostly forgotten dream.

Overall, then, Quasi Morendo ("Almost Dying") is an artistic reflection on death, life, and states that lie between. The liner notes are helpfully informative, with an especially interesting essay on the Brahms. I can recommend this release highly to music lovers – especially Brahms fans – whether they be familiar or not with his Clarinet Quintet. There is much to enjoy and much to contemplate here, both in the music and in the notes. A splendid CD!

KWN

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below: