Half century of classics sprout from modest seed

MARLBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL, 50th Anniversary Album: Disc A) LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN - Three Marches for Piano, Four Hands opus 45, Cecile Licad, piano; Mierczyslaw Horszowski, piano; GIUSEPPE VERDI - String Quartet in E minor; Pina Carmirelli, Endre Granat, violins; Martha Strongin Katz, viola; Ronald Leonard, cello; recorded Aug. 8, 1979. Pina Carmirelli, Endre Granat, violins; Martha Strongin Katz, viola; Ronald Leonard, Cello; recorded August 1969; FRANZ SCHUBERT - "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen," opus 129, D. 965; Benita Valenta, soprano; Harold Wright, clarinet; Rudolf Serkin, piano; Recorded July 1969: Felix Mendelssohn - String Quartet in A minor, opus 13; Lisa-Beth Lambert, Hiroko Yajima, violins; Annemmarie Moorcroft, viola; Sophie Shao, Cello; recorded August 1995. Disc B) BELLA BARTOK - Divertimento for String Orchestra; The Marlboro Festival Strings, Sandor Vegh, conductor, recorded July 1974; GYORGY KURTAG - Quintet for Winds, opus 2; Tanya Dusevic, flute; Rudolph Vrbsky, oboe; Michael Rusinek, clarinet; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; Sarah Dussing, horn; recorded August 1997. Gyorgy Kurtaag - "Hommage a Mihaly Andras;" Robert Waters, Catherine Szepes, violins; Jessica Troy, viola; Siegfried Palm, cello; recorded August 1997; GYORGY LIGETI - String Quartet No. 1 (Metamorphoses nocturnes), recorded 1996; Soovin Kim, Catherine Cho, violins; Kirsten Johnson, viola; Siegfried Palm, cello; Bridge Records 9108 A/B; two CDs.

In the summer of 1951, a modest seed was planted among the many-colored trees that spot the hills of Vermont. That seed was intended to produce a performance school with the underlying philosophy "that the mastery of chamber music is indispensable to musical maturity, requiring as it does, individual excellence, put in the service of a higher collective ideal."

This was to be no school for beginners. The great, the great of the past and those on a road that perhaps would one day lead to greatness would come to this sylvan paradise to learn and dream - and think music, to practice, practice, practice - and to play music together.

Marlboro Music Festival became a wonder in this land, an unforgettable experience for the attending artists and those who journeyed to the modest hall that had grown from that seed.

The album we have before us commemorates the 50th anniversary of Marlboro Music Festival. Over that half-century musicians from every walk of musical life have visited the annual festivities at Marlboro as though visiting a shrine. And I suppose it would not be an exaggeration to call it just that. They have come from all over this country. They have come from all over the world.

The school was founded that summer of 1951 by a group of six musicians representing two illustrious musical families: violinist Adolf Busch; his brother, cellist Hermann Busch; his son-in-law, pianist Rudolf Serkin; flutist Marcel Moyse; Marcel`s son, flutist Louis Moyse, and Louis` wife, violinist (and now conductor) Blanche Honegger Moyse.

Adolf Busch died in 1952 and Rudolf Serkin assumed the role of artistic director of Marlboro. He remained in that position until his death in 1991. Pianists Richard Goode and Mistook Uchida now share that position. Over the full decade of their leadership they have added new programs and guest artists while preserving the traditions established by the founding fathers - and the founding mother - and developed by Rudolf Jerkin.

We are fortunate whenever we can get a disc from Marlboro, and this is a pair of CDs to feast upon. When these musicians play, you have the feeling they play - of course to please their listeners - put perhaps even more importantly, to please themselves. Wonderful things happen on Marlboro recordings. So my recommendation is, don`t miss this pair of discs, of course. But more than that. Don`t miss any of them.

RAVEL: Quartet in E minor. BRIDGE: Quartet in E minor, "Bologna;" Noveletten. Shanghai Quartet; Delos 3223.

There are three things to especially like about this disc. The first is the quality of performances. They are excellent. The second is that we have an opportunity once again to hear this relatively new string quartet that already has made a stir in music circles and is building an impressive discography on Delos Recordings, this being the seventh album they have made for Delos. The third is the music itself. More specifically, half of the music on this disc, And I refer to the two works by the distinguished English Composer Frank Bridge (1879-1941).

Bridge suffered neglect, even in his own country. There is a respectable listing of his recorded works in Schwann`s OPUS, but most are by British recording houses not usually available at most U.S. outlets.

The E minor quartet was a very early work (1906). Noveletten was even earlier, 1902, and was written while Bridge was still a student.

The question we might ask when we hear the Bridge is are we really listening to a string quartet? Might not this work just as easily have been called "Pieces for Strings?"

If we mean that our ideas of string quartets of the classical and romantic periods it don`t sound like they do, then, yes, we could call the work pieces for strings. It doesn`t have the formal structure of quartets of earlier periods. It isn`t written so that one movement of the work leads naturally into the next movement. As a matter of fact, you could mix up the movements and still have most enjoyable music.

Whatever its architecture, it is music that brings us pleasure and therefore should be given more of a chance to live and thrive than it has received in the past. It is worthy music, as is so much of the composer`s music, music that we only infrequently have an opportunity of hearing.

The Ravel has enjoyed a most popular life. It too is not written in a strict classical-romantic form; but no matter how far it is from the blueprint once mandated by those forms, it is wonderfully romantic and exotic music. It is music that is as popular in all countries of the world as the music of Bridge is neglected.

You can count a couple of dozen-plus recordings of the Ravel String Quartet listed in OPUS, many of them by string quartets that are rated at the very top level for such ensembles. So the idea here isn`t to get picky and try to place the Shanghai Strings Quartet at an appropriate place on the ladder of excellence. Enough to say this recently formed quartet ranks very well when compared to the better strings quartets of today.

The quartet has strength, and they know how to use it when appropriate - and they know not to use it when such a reading would be inappropriate to the music. The quartet exhibits a fine sense of refinement in their playing, and their ensemble is excellent.

A highly enjoyable disc. And if you already have the Ravel, a work as fine as this always deserves an alternate recording, and with it you`ll get the Bridge. And if you don`t know him, my guess is that you`ll like him.

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: King Durkee