Alexandre Tansman - Complete Music for String Quartet (Silesian String Quartet)

Information

Composer: Alexandre Tansman

CD1

• String Quartet No. 2
• String Quartet No. 3
• String Quartet No. 4
• String Quartet No. 5

CD2

• Triptyque
• String Quartet No. 6
• String Quartet No. 7
• String Quartet No. 8

Silesian String Quartet

    Marek Mos, violin

    Arkadiusz Kubica, violin

    Łukasz Syrnicki, viola

    Piotr Janosik, cello

Date: 1992

Label: Etcetera

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Review

The story is that Alexander Tansman (1897-1986) was severely criticized for early avant-garde tendencies in his native Poland, and found a far more congenial base in Paris (after 1919) as the friend, among others, of Ravel, Milhaud and Stravinsky. There he remained, apart from the war years in America, and composed prolifically in all genres, including these eight works for string quartet—the official 'No. 1' is lost.

'Congenial' is also a reasonable label for the music. It inhabits the middleground between Ravel and Stravinsky, though too enamoured of neo-classical counterpoint for the former and too prone to resort to pseudo-impressionistic harmony for the latter. The fluency and charm are likely to wear thin if several of these works are heard in a single sitting, for, although the eight compositions span a period of more than 30 years (1922 to 1956), Tansman's style shows no radical upheavals, no startling changes of direction. Repeated listening soon shows up the predictable ostinatos, rhythmic repetitions and emphatically protracted cadences to which Tansman resorted with almost complacent consistency. He developed a particular line in busy, quite brief fugues preceded by extended slow introductions, and another, more appealing feature is the frequent use of quiet endings to fast movements and finales. None of this disguises the rather routine reliance on traditional formal models, but Tansman was never less than an efficient craftsman.

It is easy to argue that, with a stronger folk-music imput, Tansman might have been able to match the dramatic power of Bartok, or that with a more self-critical approach to slow cantabile writing he might have achieved as much as Prokofiev, or even the mighty Stravinsky. I must confess that all this rather featureless parallel harmony, still beholden to the bad old principle of the all-controlling bass line, leaves at least one listener thirsty for atonality and fragmentation. But this is not to deny the appeal of Tansman in small doses, nor to ignore his occasional achievement of greater depth. In this respect I would single out the Sixth Quartet, composed in 1944, and expressing, it's tempting to assume, a painful longing for Europe in general and Paris in particular.

The Silesian Quartet go about their advocacy of this unfamiliar repertory with considerable flair. Only rarely does the playing acquire that stolid quality suggesting that the sight-reading stage is not too far in the past, and the recordings are uniformly good.

— Arnold Whittall

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Alexander Tansman (12 June 1897 – 15 November 1986) was a Polish-born French composer. Born in Łódź to Jewish parents, he studied piano, composition and conducting before earning a law degree from Warsaw University. After moving to Paris in 1919, he gained recognition as a pianist and composer, influenced particularly by Stravinsky and Ravel. His international career included performances and tours across Europe, Asia and America. During World War II, he fled to Los Angeles with his family. Although he continued composing prolifically after returning to Paris, his neo-Classical style gradually fell out of favor.

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The Silesian String Quartet, founded in 1978 by graduates of the Karol Szymanowski Academy in Katowice, is an ensemble renowned for championing Polish contemporary music. After studying with members of leading international quartets, the group gained recognition through competition prizes and performances during Poland's cultural liberalization in the 1980s. It has since developed an active international career, performing at major venues and collaborating with prominent musicians. The quartet has recorded extensively, particularly works by Polish composers including Górecki, Bacewicz, Penderecki and Weinberg.

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