| Quatuor Hanson (Jules Dussap, Simon Dechambre, Gabrielle Lafait, Anton Hanson ) |
Having already launched discs of quartets by Haydn (All Shall Not Die), Ligeti, Bartok, and Dutilleux (Not All Cats Are Gray) in addition to George Crumb’s Black Angels, the French ensemble, Quatuor Hanson, joined forces with soprano Marie-Laure Garnier and pianist Célia Oneto Bensaid to launch Chants nostalgiques on the b data label, that includes music by Chausson, Faure and Charlotte Sohy. The centrepiece of the disc is composer Franck Villard’s transcription of Ernest Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer for voice, piano and string quartet, and the companion items characteristic Chausson’s Chanson perpetuel, Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson and Sohy’s Chants nostalgiques.
Anton Hanson, the primary violin within the quartet, explains that the repertoire for the disc was chosen very a lot in dialogue with Marie-Laure Garnier and Célia Oneto Bensaid. All six are buddies, having recognized one another since being college students on the Paris Conservatoire. The disc was meant to characteristic the primary recording of Villard’s transcription of the Chausson Poème which Anton enjoys like this. He has performed within the unique orchestral model of the Poème and while you don’t get the operatic and symphonic sweep of the unique, the chamber model brings a number of freedom to the person traces. He describes the music as very linear, with a number of horizontal traces and it was beautiful to attempt the pliability of the chamber transcription. Additionally, it’s uncommon to have such a large-scale piece for these small forces. Normally, they’re enjoying brief items or tune cycles, however right here it’s a single lengthy sweep. It was a pleasant problem, having to inform an extended story.
Alongside this, they positioned the work by Charlotte Sohy (1887-1955). A cousin of Louis Durey, from Les Six, and a good friend of Nadia Boulanger, Sohy studied with organ Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne, and composition with Vincent d’Indy. Her Chants nostalgiques, setting texts by Cyprien Halgan, dates from 1910. It was a piece found by Célia Oneto Bensaid who has exploring music by ladies composers from the nineteenth and early Twentieth-century. Anton describes it as a bit curiosity, they learn it by way of at their first rehearsal and determined to incorporate it within the recording. For ladies of the interval, it was so troublesome to review composition that their music can typically appear somewhat educational, however Sohy’s is a bit avant-garde, out of the unusual.
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| Quatuor Hanson (Picture: Anne-Laure Lechat) Anton Hanson, Jules Dussap, Gabrielle Lafait, Simon Dechambre |
Gabriel Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson is just nice French music and it’s so specific. The cycle of 9 songs setting texts by Paul Verlaine was initially written for the soprano Emma Bardac; Fauré was in love along with her, however she married Debussy! Anton explains that the quartet enjoys working with texts, and the truth that right here it’s in French helped their understanding, they did not want to review the unique textual content. And this brings a special really feel when performing the work, they’ve a stronger connection to the sung textual content. Fauré’s unique was for soprano and piano, and he later created a model for voice, piano and string quintet, however there are numerous variations in numerous keys relying on the voice kind. They tried a number of totally different ones, however listed below are enjoying Fauré’s personal model for mezzo-soprano, piano and string quartet.
The quartet already has a few of Chausson’s chamber music of their repertoire as they play the Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet. They haven’t but carried out Chausson’s String Quartet, partly as a result of it’s such an enormous piece. Chausson was nonetheless engaged on the quartet when he died (in a bicycle accident) in 1899 and the third and ultimate motion was accomplished by his good friend Vincent d’Indy. And Anton feedback that additionally relationship from the Eighteen Nineties there’s a terrific piano quartet.
With Chausson’s music, Anton feels that it’s good to have French music that’s not antagonistic to the music of Richard Wagner. However although there may be a whole lot of affect from Wagner in Chausson’s works, he makes use of Wagner’s methods another way. Anton describes the Poème as being a pleasant mixture of Wagner, Franck (Chausson’s instructor) and Saint-Saens! However his music stays a bit bit caught in time; due to his early loss of life (age 44) and no pupils, his fashion didn’t proceed and it was the somewhat totally different music of Debussy and Ravel that got here after him.
The quartet’s first recording was a double disc of quartets by Haydn on the Aparté label. This felt like a pure start line, as they’d performed Haydn because the quartet was first based and they’re all the time enjoying some Haydn. They get pleasure from bringing out the hidden hyperlinks between totally different items and totally different aesthetics, highlighting the nice continuity within the string quartet custom. There are even hyperlinks between Haydn and Bartok, one thing that they spotlight by having their second disc dedicated to quartets by Bartok, Ligeti and Dutilleux, additionally on the Aparté label.
Anton feedback that following Haydn, Beethoven launched an incredible revolution in string quartet writing however the later Romantics based mostly their music on Beethoven’s somewhat than creating their very own revolution. Therefore the following huge change in string quartet writing got here within the Twentieth century with composers like Bartok. And Ligeti’s string quartet has typically been known as Bartok’s seventh quartet, so it makes an apt companion on the disc. In relation to Dutilleux, this brings a somewhat totally different manner of appreciating the Twentieth-century string quartet.
The quartet has additionally launched a reside recording of George Crumb’s 1974-75 piece, Black Angels for electrified string quartet on the b data label. Anton describes this as being extra like music theatre, the gamers have to maneuver lots and have a lot to do, typically with their entire physique and nothing like what you usually do in a live performance.
The ensemble performs a whole lot of Twentieth and Twenty first-century music together with works by Wolfgang Rihm and Matthias Pintscher. For Anton, it is necessary that musicians needs to be linked to what’s taking place now. That’s the reason they play music. They play Twentieth-century items realizing their relation to the custom, and relate Twenty first-century works to these of Haydn. This additionally helps them to point out why Haydn’s music is sensible in the present day. In live performance, they like to combine issues, placing Haydn with Ligeti, performing Haydn, Rihm and Beethoven, bringing out the hyperlinks each ahead and backwards in time.
The quartet was based in 2013 and nonetheless has the 4 unique members. All of them began the identical 12 months on the Paris Conservatoire and performed chamber music collectively as college students and as buddies, then began exploring with extra depth. They simply went on and are nonetheless right here! Recording plans embody a disc of music for quartet and piano deliberate for 2024.
Anton doesn’t describe himself as a violin fanatic, his favorite orchestral instrument is not the violin. However he’s a fan of the repertoire and as a violinist counts himself fortunate that he can play most chamber music, all symphonic music, and opera, from Baroque to modern. For every of the gamers within the quartet, it’s the quartet that’s their precedence although every has exterior tasks as effectively.
Anton takes on freelance orchestral enjoying, that is repertoire he loves and he would really feel annoyed if he was not in a position to play the nice symphonic repertoire, and he matches performances in when he can. And the second violinist, Jules Dussap, additionally performs a whole lot of jazz. Three of the ensemble, Anton, Jules Dussap and cellist Simon Dechambre additionally do tasks utilizing intestine strings which permits them to discover additional. He admits that the quartet is unlikely to experiment with intestine strings, in spite of everything, they like combined programmes and need to have the ability to carry out Haydn and Dutilleux or Rihm in the identical programme. However there may be heaps to study from their expertise in enjoying on intestine strings, and bringing this expertise to bear on enjoying on trendy strings means they perceive that it isn’t what you play however the way you play it. Anton feels that it is a vital expertise to transpose their understanding of enjoying Hadyn on intestine strings onto trendy devices.
Wanting forward, they’re having a launch live performance for the Chants nostalgiques disc in Paris on 8 April 2023 at Le Bal Blomet. Then in Might, they’re making their first go to to Japan. Anton describes this as a pleasant shock; his dad and mom reside in Japan, his mom is Japanese, his father has lived there for forty years and Anton was born there. Then they’ve a programme of competition performances over the Summer time. There are a whole lot of festivals in France through the Summer time months, so the interval is all the time thrilling. The members of the quartet benefit from the little festivals because it provides them an opportunity to go and meet folks. Wanting additional forward to 2024, they’ve one or two huge concert events in Paris lined up already.
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