Cecilia Zillliacus: Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns. Born in Paris in 1835. Died in 1921. 86 is not a bad age for a composer. I've always had a soft spot for his music, particularly his chamber music, and his violin concertos. A recent CD features the Swedish violinist Cecilia Zilliacus with, varying, Christian Ihle Hadland (piano) and Stephen Fitzpatrick (harp). I have rarely encountered the playing of Zilliacus in the past, but I really admired her in these Saint-Saëns works. Her husky tone suits the music admirably, and she plays with a wide variety of bowings and dynamics. The first sonata is well known (it was a favourite of Jascha Heifetz). The second sonata is rarely played, but it makes for relaxed and enjoyable listening, so typical of the music of Saint-Saëns who was completely devoid of any Mahler-like Angst and anguish. The Fantaisie Op 124, and the Berceuse Op 38, both with harp accompaniment, make me wonder why there is so very little music for violin and harp. The gentle sound of the harp complements a violin so much better than the more masculine and domineering sound of a piano.

I greatly enjoyed this Saint-Saëns CD. It makes for highly comfortable listening; a bit like a French Haydn, with no stress. Given his long life, Saint-Saëns wrote a very great deal of music. A greater part of it is now rarely played. Our loss. I enjoyed the sound and playing of Cecilia Zilliacus; I know nothing about her, except I have an old CD of her playing Bartok and Dohnanyi. To my surprise, I already have a recording of the "unknown" Fantaisie for violin and harp -- played by Arnold Eidus and E.Vito in 1960. The BIS recording is excellent (BIS is a good company) and well-balanced. I suspect BIS has engineers who know about classical recording, unlike many companies who just seem to use pick-up free-lance recording specialists who may record a pop group on Monday, a jazz band on Tuesday, and a string quartet on Wednesday.

Bach Cantatas, and Beethoven Quartets

Recently I embarked on a mini-marathon of listening to nine or ten Bach cantatas, conducted by a mixture of Philippe Herreweghe and Maasaki Suzuki. Herreweghe uses mainly Flemish / Dutch forces; Suzuki uses mainly Japanese instrumentalists and choir, but usually European vocal soloists. One forgets that Bach often had to compose on autopilot, especially when his job description in Leipzig obliged him for a time to compose, rehearse and perform a new cantata every week. Even Bach couldn't do that for years on end without occasionally resorting to what might be called "composing by numbers". My attention flagged in some of the cantatas, and a few movements made me frustrated that the "skip to next track" button on my remote control does not work.

From Bach cantatas I switched my listening to Beethoven's late string quartets. These works -- starting with Op.127 in E flat major -- show what a great composer can do when roaming free and relieved of having to establish a reputation, please a patron, or earn much-needed money. I have always loved the late Beethoven quartets, including Op.130 in B flat major with its original grotesque Grosse Fuga finale. That original finale is Beethoven gone wild, just as he did, much less to my taste, in the equally grotesque choral finale to his ninth symphony. For me, the late Beethoven string quartets stand on a musical pinnacle with masterpieces such as Bach's Mass in B minor, and the Saint Matthew Passion.

I discussed -- and praised -- the performances of the Beethoven quartets by the Quatuor Mosaïques a few years ago, so I won't repeat my then-review except to confirm that I still enjoy these recordings very much, despite a myriad of rivals. As then, I greatly appreciate that the Mosaïques reinstate the original Grosse Fuga finale of Op.130 instead of the routine get-you-home-safely finale Beethoven was persuaded to substitute by the Schuppanzigh Quartet, and his friends. Beethoven's first thoughts were best, with the sublime Cavatina followed by the fugue. The cellist, Christophe Coin, underpins all the performances in an exemplary fashion.

The C sharp minor quartet Op 131 is where I started my Beethoven late quartets odyssey many, many decades ago when I bought a second-hand LP of Op 131 played by the Busch Quartet. Op 131 sees Beethoven breaking away from the classical quartet form of Haydn and Mozart and writing what, in some respects, is an elaborate fantasia nearly 40 minutes long. I have often felt this is the kind of music Beethoven would have preferred to write had he not had to worry about publishers, patrons, and sponsors.

Beethoven was only 57 years old when he died. As with Mozart, as with Schubert: what would he have written given another 15 years or so of life? I am not an uncritical fan of Ludwig van Beethoven; I have had his one opera "Fidelio" on my shelves for at least 20 years, but have yet to hear it. Much of his music, however, is truly "great", and this includes the late string quartets.

Sandrine Piau and David Kadouch

In the world of classical music, songs are an amalgam of music and poetry. In listening to songs, language is a limiting factor; if the words mean nothing to you, half the magic is gone. For that reason, serious collections of songs appear to be limited to Germany, France, and Russia (though why the Italians or Spaniards do not have serious song collections beats me). My knowledge of the French and German languages is reasonable. I don't speak Russian, so my song listening centres on French and German. I was at ease with a new CD from Sandrine Piau, accompanied by David Kadouch. The 19 songs are partly in German (Liszt, Wolf, Schubert, Clara Schumann) and partly in French (Duparc, Lili Boulanger, Debussy -- and the cosmopolitan Liszt again).

Piau sings like an angel, and her diction is good -- so necessary in these songs. I also liked Kadouch as her partner (he plays two solos during the CD). Recitals mixing languages are strangely rare, but I greatly welcomed this one. Recommended.