Shostakovich meets Saariaho ... Terra Memoria
Previously, Classical Explorer has featured the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam: we saw them at Wigmore Hall in Mozart and Tchaikovsky, then looked at the first volume of Tchaikovsky Quartets here.
This new disc, Terra Memoria, certainly comes with an arresting promo video: the music is from the Saariaho, her Terra Memoria, from which the disc takes its title. But look at the filming:
We have previously covered Shostakovich's Third Quartet (in Gstaad with the Hagen Quartet), but that was live, so it's good to see it on a new disc. The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam present Shostakovich's music with their characteristic transparency of texture. This quartet originally had titles for each movement, but they were withdrawn. As Dudok member Ellis Judith van Driel explains,
Playing or listening to the third movement [for example] gives an infinitely more accurate meaning, by making adrenaline rush through your body causing your ears to ring from an unrelenting pounding. Its meaning is manifest in your sense of terror, fear and anger, whether or not you have ever experienced war up close.
The Third Quartet begins innocently enough: an almost Haydnsque melody, spiked with chaacteisic dissonance. The original title of this movement was "blissful ignorance of the future cataclysm": it's never just happy, with Shostakovich, is it?. The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam finds a bright and breezy tempo, perhaps a touch quicker than one might expect, but it works, especially as they can project Shostakovich's changes of moods so well. As to second movement (originally, "rumblings of rest and anticipation"), there is so much character here, particularly in firs violinist Judith van Driel's contributions. Here is the typical Shostakovich dance-though-a-fairgound-mirror. After the hammer-blows of the third movement, almost symphonic in the performance ("Forces of war unlashed"), comes the remarkable Adagio ("In memory of the dead"). Here, we gat another remarkable video:
There is no doubt as to the passacaglia basis of the movement; no doubt, either, that this is a funeral march of unrelenting emotion, be that sadness of anger. This is n intense, powerful account, unrelenting in its grief. and when Shostakovich bunches his themes in the upper registers, the tensile strength of the Dudok players is unforgettable.
The finale, "The eternal question: why? and for what?" bings melodies which seem of popular character to remarkable poignancy. This is an astonishing performance, the close recording only emphasising the claustrophobia of the frenzied climax, while the Dudok's pure, low-vibrato stance emphasises th fragility of many passages.
It is good to see some Saaiaho her: her opera, Innocence, staged at Covent Garden, was one of my highlights of 2023 (review).
I feel when writing for a string quartet that I’m entering into the intimate core of musical communication. (Kaija Saariaho)
The Dudok Quartet worked on this piece with the composer back in 2013. Terra Memoria is for ...
... those whose lives are over, with nothing to be added, while this aft behind are haunted by dreams and memories and find that the ship of remembrance can change as time passes.
The piece is full of pain, and in involving this, Saariaho asks the players to use extended techniques: to fo effect, but as a core part of the emotional messagings. Terra Memoria is an astonishing piece, but not for the faint-hearted.
The disc close with arrangements of pieces originally for piano: something of a Dudok calling card: arrangement of eight preludes from Shostakovich's Op. 34 are made by Judith van Driel and David Faber. The range of music here is wide: listen to the playful "waltz" of Op. 34/2:
The Quartet is currently touring the UK: on the day of this post, including a concert at Sheffield's “Music in the Round“ series. before heading back home to the Netherlands fo December and then off on a US tour: their full schedule is available here.
It's turning into a bit of a chamber music week (after the Beethoven for Three yesterday, there's some Razumovsky Quartets to come) but there will also be a concert report, and there will be a Christmas disc, too - it's that time of year!
The disc is available at Amazon here. Streaming below.
