Taking their name from the 18th century Spanish writer and
publisher Pablo Minguet, this young quartet have embarked on a
traversal of the twelve extant String Quartets by the German
composer Wolfgang Rihm. Rihm, if you remember, was propelled to
his fifteen MTV seconds of fame by Anne-Sophie Mutter's
prize-winning recording (with Levine/Chicago SO) of his
Gesungene Zeit ("Time Chant"), coupled with the Berg
Concerto (DG 437 093-2), but for the most part remains much in
neglect and inattention.
Maybe this pair of discs
might change a thing or two: his first six string quartets are
presented here on two discs, the earlier four in the first
volume and the latter two in the second volume. Volume one
contains music which precedes Rihm's artistic maturity, and even
the most attractive of the four quartets here, the
Third Quartet "Im Innersten",
reveals the eighteen-year-old composer's gangly musical
awkwardness.
Still, the recording
here is invaluable insofar that it gives us an insight into
Rihm's early aesthetic ideas and intentions and full credit to
the Minguets for spotlighting the small flashes of virtue amidst
the admittedly swatches of impenetrable purple prose. There is
an even greater clarity in their readings, both vertically and
rhythmically, of the
Third and
Fourth Quartets
as a more recognizable Rihm begins to emerge from the
self-conscious blather of the two early experiments, and the
players, if anything, are relentlessly emphatic in their
approach.
The Minguets, I have to
say, are very good at shaping the holistic musical arc of each
work in the big picture, as well as zooming into the individual
strokes and gestures of detail, nudging and sculpting the music
with bags of steely determination and utterance. It sounds like
they are putting themselves under the musical cosh to produce
the goods, and Wolfgang Rihm should be so lucky to have such
dedicated and insightful exponents of his music.
The latter two quartets,
which date from the early and mid 1980s, are single-movement
works: the
Fifth Quartet, which
was premiered September 9, 1983, and the
Sixth Quartet, on June
14, 1986. These two works are remarkably similar, anchored on
the F-sharp, and replete with Rihm's inimitable style of textual
density: graphic layering of chords, liberal use of
sforzando
markings, creating a opaque signature style which the Minguet
Quartet delivers with gusto and assurance.
This is especially
evident in the fifty-minute "Blue Book"
Sixth Quartet (cued on
this disc, as with the
Fifth Quartet, into
four tracks at appropriate intervals for easier listener
reference): the Minguets valiantly tack into the disquiet and
turmoil of Rihm's robust chromaticisms, even if they begin to
suffer, towards the latter passages, from what sounds like an
occasional stiffness of gesture and phrasing. Even so, their
dreamy passages of quietitude and stasis have a way of "sucking"
you into its calm before they suddenly lurch forward and unleash
Rihm's fistfuls of granitic passage-work in surging torrents of
Angst.
But Rihm's music, I
think, needs a bit more give and flexibility than the players
permit here, although I do appreciate how their directness of
approach seemingly allows them to punch above their weight
class, as it were, by attaining a deeper intensity from
judicious application of a lighter push, even if not all
listeners will be persuaded by such mannerisms. It could very
well be a form of acquired taste - insouciant and pungent at
first contact, yet provocative and ear-catching: the
untranslatable Teutonic word
Ohrwurm
comes to mind.
In fact, I get the sense
that this particular recording is merely a "snapshot" of both
the composer and the musicians' thoughts about this music at
this point in evolutionary time, and were we to revisit this
music five, ten years later, we might not recognize Rihm and the
Minguets for what they are today. By his own admission, Wolfgang
Rihm does not view his twelve quartets as individual offspring
at all, but as different portions and aspects of a single,
lifelong continuous work. But if musical interpretation is a
moving target, the Minguets nonetheless are fair enough on the
mark to make this audition a confrontational yet rewarding
experience. The sound is immediate and well-balanced, and to
listeners who have never experienced Rihm in chamber music (or
even at all elsewhere), this series might hold a surprise or
three.
