Musician Gregor Hrabar on the new Quartet Berlin-Tokyo album

 

Quartet Berlin-Tokyo. From left, Dmitri Pavlov, Tsuyoshi Moriya, Ruiko Matsumoto and Gregor Hrabar. 

When Quartet Berlin-Tokyo decided to do a world-premiere recording of Gavriil Popov's  57-minute "Quartet-Symphony," the 1951 String Quartet in C Major, Op. 61, the members didn't want to be rushed. So the quartet created its own record label, taking four weeks for the recording, as violist Gregor Hrabar explains in the interview below.

The new album, which also includes a shorter piece by Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff, "Five Pieces for String Quartet," has received rave reviews. And fans of Popov are happy to be able to hear nearly an hour of his music for the first time; many of his compositions apparently remain unrecorded. The CD can be purchased directly from the group and is available from many of the usual online outlets and streaming services. 

Quartet Berlin-Tokyo features musicians from all over the world. Violinist Tsuyoshi Moriya and cellist Ruiko Matsumoto are from Japan. Violinist Dmitri Pavlov was born in Russia,  but his family emigrated to Israel. Gregor Hrabar was born in Slovenia but also has studied music in Austria and Berlin. Learn more about the group at the official site at https://www.quartetberlintokyo.com/.

The new album is the first issued by the quartet's own record label, "QBT Collection," as Hrabar explained when I interviewed him by email:

Russian Futurism: Can you say something about how your quartet discovered the Gavriil Popov "Quartet Symphony," and why you decided to feature it on your first recording?

Gregor Hrabar: We were approached by a composer friend of ours, who also wrote a book about forgotten Soviet composers. In his opinion Popov was one of the greatest, if not the greatest of them all. So when we had a look at the score and gave it a shot, we immediately knew we wanted to record it. To record it with a label was impossible for us back in the day due to financial reasons, plus we didn't want to go through yet another recording session where you would maybe have 5 days under microphones, trying to reach the deadline and focusing on not making mistakes, instead of taking time and pushing the limits. Thus "QBT Collection" was born.

Russian Futurism: Can you tell me the name of your composer friend, and his or her book? I would love to read it, if it's available in English.

Gregor Hrabar: His name is Boris Yoffe. He is a good friend of the quartet and his "Quartettbuch" miniatures kept our spirits up during lockdown's restrictions of performing. 37 of them landed on YouTube as part of our "Micro-Concerts" series and more are still to come. His book is called "Im Fluss des Symphonischen", though I'm not sure if it has ever been translated to English. You can find the German copy under this link, at https://www.wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/boris-yoffe-im-fluss-des-symphonischen/.

 

Russian Futurism: You mentioned that having your own label allowed you to take your time with the recording, and do it right. How long did it take to record the album?

Gregor Hrabar: The recording process itself took us four weeks, and it took me a total of four months to edit it. We had a sort of a gentleman's agreement that the recording session will be an open-end production without stress of deadlines, only finishing when everyone is happy. Of course one cannot overstretch into a never-ending process, as there will be a certain time window of productivity. Still, we loved the idea of slow-cooking the pieces, as it became a very pleasant experience, even if incredibly intense. For myself in particular, as I took on the role of the sound engineer and producer, basically living with the score and the audio takes day and night.

Russian Futurism: Can you say anything yet about upcoming recording projects?

Gregor Hrabar: The plan is to have two recording sessions per season. One will be for an annual release, as the concept is to introduce a new album each year. The other will be for a bigger production, containing more works of a single composer, which will, of course, take more time to finish, especially now that concerts and tours are starting again. Recording of Vol.2 is scheduled for the second half of August. Apart from our own production, we are planning to record all the Op.33 of Joseph Haydn this year, by a kind invitation of EuroArts who will produce a DVD in Austria and Japan.

Gregor Hrabar 

Russian Futurism: I have heard you might be recording more Russian music, can you comment on that yet?

Gregor Hrabar: It's currently too soon to confirm that I'm afraid. With Popov and Schulhoff being such absolute unanimous choices of the group and Popov being such a titan, it has been difficult to find a piece that could fill such big shoes. Also research into the unknown is tricky and it takes time, with outcomes being uncertain until the very end. But we do share very big love for the Slavic repertoire.

Russian Futurism: Is Quartet Berlin-Tokyo going to tour the U.S. anytime soon?

Gregor Hrabar: It is certainly a wish an a plan in motion, yes. The CD and Popov himself seem to have quite a big fandom in the States to our big surprise (Schulhoff too, which seems to be less known there), and we have shipped quite a few copies there already. The request of people being able to hear it live as well is growing and if it does turn out to happen, it will most likely be in 2024 or later.

Russian Futurism: Your band is truly international, as your name implies. How did you get together? Is English the "lingua franca" you use to talk to each other?

Gregor Hrabar: My colleagues met in 2011 as members of HfM "Hanns Eisler" and UDK in Berlin. I joined them in 2018. As languages go, it is a rather funny mixture of English, German and Japanese. Sometimes a bit of Slavic too, depending on how heated the conversation is 😛

World premiere for Gavriil Popov piece

 

Gavriil Popov (1904-1972) is one of the major composers of what I call "Russian Futurism." And a relatively new string quarter, Quartet Berlin-Tokyo, has performed a big service to classical music by releasing the world-premiere recording of Popov's "Quartet-Symphony," the 1951 String Quartet in C Major, Op . 61. 

It's a long piece, about 57 minutes long. The album pairs it with a short  piece by the interesting Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff, "Five Pieces for String Quartet." The album is getting excellent reviews, such as this one ("the rediscovery of the Popow Quartet is a very strong argument for this album.")

Popov is chiefly remembered for two early pieces, his 1935 First Symphony (banned after one performance) and, from 1927,  his chamber symphony. Recordings of those two are not difficult to find, but the Quartet Berlin-Tokyo release is the only way to listen to the Quartet Symphony, which dates from 1951. 

If you become interested in Popov, you may want to know that a Popov piano piece is included in this excellent album by Yury Favorin. 

Quartet Berlin-Tokyo

Sad news from Moscow: Arthur Arnold resigns

Arthur Arnold (Facebook photo)

Arthur Arnold has resigned as the music director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. It's the orchestra that recorded an album of previously unavailable Alexander Mosolov music; I did several posts about it, including this piece. 

Here is Mr. Arnold's posting on Facebook announcing his decision:

"It is with the greatest conviction and with an immense sadness that I resign from my position as music director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in Russia, effective immediately.

"The MSO is not state-supported and has never been since its inception in 1989. Nonetheless, I feel that I cannot collaborate with a country whose president chooses war as a solution to conflict and causes incredible human tragedy.

"The fruitful artistic cooperation, which started with a concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 2004, will be sorely missed.

"My heart goes out to the people in Ukraine and everyone suffering from this needless war. I am proud to join with the countless people across the world who are raising their voices and taking a stand."

Judging from the comments, most agree with Arnold but a few believe it was the wrong decision, as the orchestra is independent of the Russian state (as Arnold himself says). 

Here is the post, with comments. 

The patron behind the Mosolov album and what were supposed to be other efforts to bring Russian music to life, e.g. the "Mosolov project," is Max Gutbrod. He commented,

"Reminds me of the discussion of Furtwänglers role in Nazi time. My impression was that the real issue with him was that he decorated events for the regime and later on did as if he were not involved. In contrast, already when we did https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mza8p_iM2gE... together it was rather non-official, a type of opposition type. More broadly, I would think music can help to oppose, and there are great examples of the same, not least Mrs. Kalesnikava. Be it as it may, I am looking forward to exploring options to further the Mosolov-project with Arthur Arnold."

I hope he can find workable options. 

Can Daniil Trifonov help Mosolov become better known?

Daniil Trifonov playing at Carnegie Hall in 2017 (Creative Commons photo). 

I have been listening to the extended version of The Silver Age by the pianist Daniil Trifonov. I learned about the album via Tyler Cowen, who noted that it has been one of the best reviewed albums of 2021.  It's available on Hoopla Digital, which is offered by most public libraries in the U.S. 

While the new album has music by Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Scriabin, there is the intriguing possibility that Trifonov might consider recording music by Alexander Mosolov. An article from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's website says:

"Trifonov is also learning a concerto by little-known Russian composer Alexander Mosolov (1900-1973), who served in World War I and received a medical discharge because of post-traumatic stress disorder. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1925, but ran afoul of Soviet authorities in the 1930s, getting a prison sentence shortened only through the intervention of some prominent fellow composers. Trifonov calls the composer’s virtually unknown concerto a 'bit of a curiosity': 'It’s quite an original work, and it’s almost never played.' ”

While it's certainly already possible to listen to recordings of Mosolov's first piano concerto -- I own two of them, one featuring pianist Rusudan Khuntsaria, the other with Steffen Schleiermacher as the soloist -- a recording by someone as well known as Trifonov would be helpful in providing attention to Mosolov. 

I still like Russian music

Sergei Prokofiev, born in what is now the eastern Ukraine. 

I have switched from working full time to working part time -- I am kind of semi-retired -- and so I have more time to work on this blog and revive it. My timing for this effort appears to be a bit awkward. 

While I am interested in classical music generally, the focus of this blog has been on Russian classical music of the 20th century, particularly the avant garde movement of the 1920s and 1930s -- not just Prokofiev and Shostakovich, who obviously don't need any help from me, but also particularly neglected figures such as Alexander Mosolov and Gavriil Popov. 

What all of these composers, and many more I can name, have in common is that they all in various ways managed to get into trouble with the Soviet regime. I am horrified by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and I've never been a Putin fan, but there seems to be a general dumb abhorrence of all things Russian. I still think the music I am promoting is beautiful and deserves to be known.

Possibly related: Tyler Cowen on "Anti-Russian sentiment is the new McCarthyism." 

I disagree with most of the comments for Tyler's post, but agree with the one posted by Tom Meadowcroft: "Once again the MR comment section makes it clear that liberalism is an intellectual idea which is quickly abandoned as soon as something emotionally triggering happens. Tyler is entirely correct; we shouldn't punish all Russians for the sins of Putin, nor even those who have supported him in the past. It is fair game to punish those who support this war against Ukraine in words or deeds, but punishment for a mere association with Putin and his government is deeply illiberal. But it's the sort of thing that people who have no other means to object to the war can do to signal virtue and make themselves feel good about themselves.

"Liberalism is quickly abandoned when confronted with blood or money. It is not emotionally satisfying. That is why preserving liberal norms will always be a struggle."

Also: Moscow Times is one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Russia. It likely deserves your attention and support.