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Approaching something as bizarre as this, everything must work in its favor if one is to gain any kind of appreciation or understanding of it. Exceptionally accomplished execution of course, but even more, especially in this case, natural, realistic, alluring recorded sound is absolutely paramount. What Pentatone has contrived here doesn’t exactly deliver that.
Most problematic – it sounds like the group is recorded at quite a distance, rendering the many extended soft sections (where virtually nothing is happening) largely inaudible on the home stereo system. (Even the faint hum of the refrigerator in another room is distracting.) So one is almost forced to listen on headphones – which I don’t like. If you’re going to record something like this, at least be practical about it and make it realistically listenable. And as I discovered, headphones actually exacerbate my primary issues with the recorded sound itself.
First and foremost, the silences are SO dead and empty, it doesn’t even sound like a real acoustic. What’s missing is a sense of real humans occupying real space. There’s nothing palpable to suggest believability. And as for the noise itself (which literally is all these works consist of – noise), even the sounds don’t sound real. Paradoxically, the mics seem very close to the fingerboards, and there is an artificiality to what you hear that makes all of this sound like electronic-generated AI noise (or a synthesizer). Blowing, whooshing, sweeping, sliding, scratching, crunching, plunking, “circular” sawing, all kinds of grunting, groaning, howling, zipping, farting and whistle sounds, et al, ad nauseum. It’s not that I necessarily have an objection to all these sounds per se, it’s that they just never end. And as recorded here, it all just sounds reproduced – not really realistic or believable. I can’t imagine how the engineer fabricated this sonic anomaly – distant and up close at the same time.
Perplexed, I don’t remember it being at all like this on the other recording of it I have – the 2014 Mode (WDR) recording played by JACK Quartet – though I haven’t listened to that CD in ages. So I decided to grab it off the shelf for comparison (and a quick refresher) and give it a listen – still on headphones. And here we have a completely different experience. Suddenly all this noise begins to make some sense. Well, no, it could never make sense. But there is at least the sense of realness to it – living, breathing human beings creating sound by whatever means necessary. And as such, it is actually somewhat fascinating, mesmerizing even, now that we actually believe these noises are actually made by real people with real instruments in a real space. And the mind is engaged and begins to imagine how they do it. As opposed to the artificiality heard on Pentatone, suggesting it’s just electronic. And the mind just goes numb.
But let’s be real. Even with the superiority of the JACK Quartet playing this*, it’s still nonsense. (There aren’t even actual notes in it!) And it still goes on WAAAY too long for what it is. I could possibly sit through one of these string quartets – and maybe even come to appreciate it. But to try to endure 3 of them, totaling 70 minutes, is simply too much to bear. Let alone comprehend. And really, no one should even try. Perhaps sometime I’ll undertake an experiment to listen to just one a day for three consecutive days and see what happens. Maybe I’ll report back; or maybe I’ll just put it up on the shelf to collect dust. I can’t ever imagine listening to any of this again – and honestly, I wouldn’t have listened to this new recording if it weren’t for Quatuor Diotima playing it, whose Ligeti was so fantastic on an earlier recording.
I realize I’ve spent most of this review discussing the recorded sound. And I suppose that’s partly because I don’t really know what to say about the works themselves. And I’m sure many will get so caught up in all the noise, they won’t even notice the recording. But to anyone unfamiliar with Lachenmann, who might be thinking surely I’m exaggerating what is presented here (really, it’s all noise? there really aren’t any notes in it?), I’d refer you to an informative quote from the composer himself, reprinted in the booklet. In the opening paragraph, Quatuor Diotima recounts their 25-year relationship with the composer, where at some point early on he described his work to them as “a music in Noise Major, the ultimate avatar of musical deconstruction.” Yup…that sounds about right. Even more interesting (and somewhat troubling) is the group’s statement that “this recording is the fruit of 25 years of shared work [with the composer], literally hundreds of hours of rehearsals and conversations.” They really spent 25 years on this stuff?! While I admire their dedication, to my reasoning, if it takes that long to understand what the composer wants, then there’s something wrong with what the composer wants. But that’s just me.
In the end, I’m afraid the fruits of their labor weren’t fully realized on this Pentatone recording. It’s not the playing by any means – these guys are phenomenal by any measure, and I would imagine their live performances are quite a different experience. But as heard on this CD, these “string quartets” by Helmut Lachenmann aren’t “fascinating” like most everyone who’s written about them asserts. For when you don’t even believe that it’s real, combined with the fact that absolutely nothing ever happens – and the realization that absolutely nothing is ever going to happen – it just becomes mildly interesting (for a short period of time), and unimaginably boring (in the long run). While the other recording from the JACK Quartet provides a more intriguing experience, I’ll still take John Zorn’s Cat O’Nine Tails and George Crumb’s Black Angels any day over any of this.
Postscript. I am always open to exploring new music and music I am unfamiliar with. So I wondered if I’m being too narrow-minded about this composer (which I don’t think I am). So I had my spouse sit down in front of the speakers, and without any preamble, I played a couple minutes of each of these Quartets and waited for a reaction. He has absolutely no inclination toward audiophile matters like the recorded acoustic and such that I obsess over; he just loves music. And his response to this was simple and direct: “reductio ad absurdum“. You can probably figure that out, or you can google it for clarity. Either way, the answer is the same. And it pretty much sums it up for me as well.
*and JACK Quartet really are superior in every way. They make a feast out of this kind of stuff; it’s just about all they ever play/record. They are the undisputed champions of noisemaking.
