"Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) was one of a troika of Swiss composers (the others being Frank Martin and Arthur Honegger) who were instrumental in establishing Switzerland as a force to be reckoned with on the European music scene. He was born in Brunnen on the banks of Lake Lucerne, a stunning spot that in fact out-idylls just about anywhere else in the land. He studied first at the Zurich Conservatory, went to Leipzig in 1907 to spend a year writing reams of counterpoint exercises under Max Reger, then returned to Zurich, never to leave again except for concert engagements and holidays. Schoeck made his living primarily as an orchestral conductor and as a piano accompanist, but it was as a composer that he attained real significance. His oeuvre comprises eight operas, some four hundred songs, and just a few minor instrumental works. The dominance of the word in his oeuvre has not made it easy for his music to gain recognition beyond the linguistic boundaries. Even his Expressionist operatic masterpiece 'Penthesilea' (1923-5), which has enjoyed two recordings and over a dozen productions in the past quarter-century, has only once been performed outside the German-speaking world.
"Nor is Schoeck's music always immediately easy on the ear—the idyllic was not a register he employed often. Ironically, his essentially late-Romantic style was after the Second World War nevertheless considered 'too accessible' at a time when the avant-garde was noisily sweeping all before it. Schoeck was simply a composer who managed to fall between all possible stools. But in his day, his music was admired by Alban Berg, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Paul Hindemith and many others, while his staunchest champion among performers was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. And if there is one work of Schoeck's to prove how well-founded was their admiration, it is surely the 'Notturno for string quartet and voice' of 1931-3. It was by no means the first-ever vocal work with string quartet accompaniment, though it is particularly remarkable for the virtuosity with which it merges vocal and instrumental forms (and is in this reminiscent of Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck, which Schoeck knew well). It was first performed on 18 May 1933 in Zurich by Felix Loeffel and the Zürcher Streichquartett. Despite its immense technical difficulties, it has proven one of Schoeck's more often-performed works — not least thanks to the persistence of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who recorded it and kept it in his repertoire for over a decade.
"The Notturno sets ten poems in five movements. The inner movements have one poem each, while the first has four, the last three. All the poems except the tenth are by the German Romantic poet Nikolaus Lenau (1802-50), one of Schoeck's favourite authors. There is no 'story' in this cycle, which is unified instead by its overall tenor of darkness (hence the title). While there is no doubt that Schoeck was troubled by the political developments to the north of the Swiss borders in the early 1930s, the dark night of the soul depicted in the 'Notturno' is in fact of purely personal origin. This is reflected in the music fabric itself by the use of a specific, recurring musical theme. It first appears in the opening movement, at the line 'Der immer naht, ihr immer doch zu fehlen' ('He approaches but never does he reach her'), then forms the basis of a subsequent sonata-form interlude for quartet alone, and returns later to dominate the final movement of the work." (Chris Walton. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Rosamunde Quartett, Christian Gerhaher
1. Notturno, Op. 47: I. Ruhig
2. Notturno, Op. 47: II. Presto
3. Notturno, Op. 47: III. Unruhig Bewegt
4. Notturno, Op. 47: IV. Ruhig Und Leise
5. Notturno, Op. 47: V. Rasch Und Kräftig (Quasi Recit.)
flac/16-bit
