by Ben Hogwood
Dan Snaith, the man better known in musical circles as Caribou, returns with his first new material in two years. Honey is a dancefloor track, co-produced by Four Tet, that has a pretty nippy beat, a rounded bass sound and some pretty psychedelic goings-on up top. Fans will be pleased! You can watch below and listen / buy via Bandcamp:
Published post no.2,142 – Monday 8 April 2024
by Ben Hogwood
What’s the story?
The second coming of Ride is now officially longer than the first. This is a statement that seemed very unlikely when they first split in 1996, but Mark Gardener, Andy Bell, Loz Colbert and Steve Queralt now appear to be together for keeps.
Interplay is the third album of their second incarnation, and the band have been candid about how difficult it was to record – yet such openness now appears to be one of their key strengths.
What’s the music like?
This is a very strong album, and could be the record that see Ride cross over to being a genuine rock band as well as acknowledged shoegaze royalty. Songs like the opening Peace Sign are key to this, being a full-blown anthem with winsome, jangly guitar lines and a great chorus to boot.
Gardener’s voice sounds great, more versatile than before. Monaco finds an edge to the voice reminiscent of The The, while Last Frontier has a softer side that sounds more familiar, tipping towards New Order or Electronic. What fans might not have expected is the barely concealed anger powering the centre of the album. Portland Rocks gives an indication of this, but I Came To See The Wreck goes the whole hog, the standout track of the album. “Rage, body and soul” is the takeaway lyrical couplet of an all-consuming song.
Elsewhere, Midnight Rider is a groovy throwback, while Sunrise Chaser brings brighter colours to the table. The band marry electronics and guitars convincingly, and production is excellent.
Does it all work?
It does. Melodic, meaningful and with songs that stick.
Is it recommended?
It certainly is – with Interplay Ride have made the album of their career so far.
For fans of… Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized
Listen and Buy
Published post no.2,141 – Sunday 7 April 2024
by Ben Hogwood
What’s the story?
The title of Julia Holter’s sixth album appears to be a play on words from The Beatles’ song Sometimes…but there is no reason to suggest that in the accompanying press release.
Instead the title could be more a reference to motherhood, and the birth of her daughter – as well as the presence of loved ones lost. What is certainly present is Holter’s physical connection with music, and a sense of being in the moment – rather than looking back in a dreamlike state as some of her work has done. As she says, “It’s about being in the passionate state of making something: being in that moment, and what is that moment?”
What’s the music like?
Something…has an experimental feel, and does on occasional feel like a dream sequence, experienced out of the body. This being Holter, there is melody at its core – and a strong inner power, experienced on the heady opening trio. Sun Girl, These Morning and the title track are rich in colour, Holter’s soft vocal matched by dappled textures, an agile flute part and – on the latter – a moving saxophone solo.
Most striking of all is the song Spinning, which starts like a misfiring record turntable, but establishes itself as a highly distinctive track. The backing is a kind of oblique waltz, the foil for Holter’s vocal, a mixture of powerful singing and conversational asides.
Ocean is both beatless and bottomless, as its title suggests it should be – with upper melodic lines bringing a new age feel to the surface. Talking To The Whisper has similar depths but with beats added – and connections that feel primal, in and around the flurries of flute and percussion. Who Brings Me offers calm and contemplation, closing thoughts in the company of clarinet and rich synthesized sound.
Does it all work?
It does – but because this is complex music, several listens are recommended to get the most from Holter’s music, revealing more of its extraordinary layers.
Is it recommended?
It is – a characteristically intense addition to Julia Holter’s output, music that makes strong physical and emotional connections with its listener.
For fans of… Julianna Barwick, Laurel Halo, Joanna Newsom
Listen and Buy
Published post no.2,140 – Saturday 6 April 2024
The Summer, by Caspar David Friedrich (1807)
String Quartet no.9 in C major Op.59/3 ‘Razumovsky’ (1806, Beethoven aged 35)
Dedication Count (later Prince) Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky
Duration 32’
1.Andante con moto – Allegro vivace
2.Andante con moto quasi allegretto
3.Menuetto: Grazioso
4.Allegro molto
Listen
written by Ben Hogwood
Background and Critical Reception
The third of Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’ quartets provides the light to the relative darkness of its predecessor, set in sunny C major in contrast to E minor. Jan Swafford documents it as ‘another of the 1806 works written at a gallop. Like the Fourth Symphony and the Violin Concerto, it is absolutely of a piece and a splendid piece, but more compact in material than its colleagues in the set, with less complex interrelations than the others. It conservative elements, however, do not imply a retreat to the eighteenth century. All the Razumovskys are distinctive pilgrims on Beethoven’s New Path.
The celebrated musicologist Carl Dahlhaus devotes more time to this ‘Razumovsky’ quartet than the other two in his book Beethoven: Approaches to his Music, sharing Ludwig Fincher’s view of the piece ‘as a reflection, from a composer’s point of view, of the social position of the string quartet in the years following 1800.’
For Dahlhaus, “the quartet makes use of symphonic or concertante means as a way of presenting itself to the general public, but at the same time it incorporates those same means in a skilled artistic construction that only connoisseurs can appreciate.” Swafford has the emphatic last word. “For Beethoven’s part, having cleared his throat with op.18, with op.59 he was ready to stand up to his predecessors and models, ready to prove he was their equal on their home ground.”
Thoughts
There is a mysterious introduction to this work that – for this listener at least – harks back to the uncertainty of Mozart’s string quartet in the same key, known as the Dissonance. The harmony is not so otherworldly here but there is still an atmosphere of uncertainty, one set right by the start of the Allegro, even though Beethoven’s genial theme doesn’t immediately set down roots in C major. It does however start off a highly attractive Allegro section, where the quartet enjoys the fulsome writing, while songful and virtuoso exchanges comfortably exist side by side.
The Andante has roots in A minor, C major’s closest ‘relative’, but moves around a little restlessly. There is the spirit of a slow dance but one that never fully settles, as though the first violin is changing partners at irregular intervals. The cello offers a rhythmic base and counterpoint through pizzicato figures.
The Menuetto (not marked as a Scherzo) has a grace one might associate with Haydn, from one of the Op.33 quartets, the melodies freely passing between instruments as the music flows beautifully. This is the ‘chamber’ Beethoven, whereas the finale – following seamlessly without a break – is definitely the ‘public’ Beethoven. Here he is showing off in the best possible way, with a full-blown fugue showing a complete mastery of the form. It generates a terrific energy which must have been a whole new experience for the first audiences. The quartet ends with a flourish, and you can imagine Ignaz Schuppanzigh bowing for all he was worth in the first performance before collapsing in a heap at the end!
Recordings used and Spotify links
Melos Quartet (Wilhelm Melcher and Gerhard Voss (violins), Hermann Voss (viola), Peter Buck (cello) (Deutsche Grammophon)
Borodin String Quartet (Ruben Aharonian, Andrei Abramenkov (violins), Igor Naidin (viola), Valentin Berlinsky (cello) (Chandos)
Takács Quartet (Edward Dusinberre, Károly Schranz (violins), Roger Tapping (viola), Andras Fejér (Decca)
Tokyo String Quartet (Peter Oundjian, Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola), Sadao Harada (cello) (BMG)
Végh Quartet (Sándor Végh, Sándor Zöldy (violins), Georges Janzer (viola) & Paul Szabo (cello) (Valois)
Amadeus String Quartet (Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel (violins), Peter Schidlof (viola), Martin Lovett (cello)
You can chart the Arcana Beethoven playlist as it grows, with one recommended version of each piece we listen to. Catch up here!
Also written in 1806 Hummel 12 Minuets
Next up tbc
Published post no.2,139 – Friday 5 April 2024
Dolmen in snow, by Caspar David Friedrich (1807)
String Quartet no.8 in E minor Op.59/2 ‘Razumovsky’ (1806, Beethoven aged 35)
Dedication Count (later Prince) Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky
Duration 38’
1.Allegro
2.Molto adagio ‘Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento’
3.Allegretto (second section marked ‘Maggiore – Thème russe’
4.Finale. Presto
Listen
written by Ben Hogwood
Background and Critical Reception
Beethoven is thought to have written the three Razumovsky string quartets between April and November 1806 – during which he redefined the parameters of a form shaped by Haydn and Mozart. When you stop to consider he was working on the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto and the Fourth Symphony at the time, it offers some perspective on his capabilities as a composer!
The first ‘Razumovsky quartet’ in F major drew parallels to the Eroica symphony, but the second is a very different work, set in E minor – a key seen by Lewis Lockwood to be “a bleak and distant key in the tonal system of the period”. As Jan Swafford goes on to note, “The beginning is as curiously fragmentary as the previous quartet’s was curiously sustained. The feeling of the minor mode here is not tragic but mysterious, with startling harmonic jumps.”
As for the second movement, contemporary composer and friend Carl Czerny recalled Beethoven saying that the E-major slow movement fell into his mind “when contemplating the starry sky and thinking about the music of the spheres”.
Thoughts
There is high drama in the first movement of this quartet, the polar opposite to its predecessor. The sweep of the first two chords is unlike anything we have heard in Beethoven’s music for string quartet to date – the first chord with 9 notes, the second with 7. Together they make a gesture whose impact is felt throughout the work, and the follow-up – a kind of stunned statement – also carries thematic importance.
The first movement moves between this loud dynamic and soft, dramatic responses, the atmosphere tense and febrile. Whenever the intensity grows the chords reappear in different guises, and there are some striking discords as the movement heads to its thoughtful close.
The slow movement is placed second, a much richer affair than the first quartet – but equally expressive, the four instruments showing off a very full bodied sound at climactic points. Again, slow music for Beethoven has a heavenly air in its stillness – though a central section disturbs this piece with harsh double stopped violin, imparting the atmosphere of the first movement.
The scherzo is both elegant and serious to begin with, though at times becomes full-bodied and heavy. The trio, on the other hand, is light footed, its perky tune shared between the instruments. The finale’s dotted rhythms provide the backing for a folksy tune on the violin, with the unmistakable feeling of turning for home. Though starting in C major, E minor is the obvious destination, and so it proves with music of terrific power and poise. It’s easy to forget just four instruments are involved!
This is further evidence of Beethoven’s total reimagining of the string quartet, elevating the medium to a higher and much more ambitious plane. Each quartet is now a fully fledged drama, with a huge dynamic range and more meaningful emotions than we have yet heard from any composer.
Recordings used and Spotify links
Melos Quartet (Wilhelm Melcher and Gerhard Voss (violins), Hermann Voss (viola), Peter Buck (cello) (Deutsche Grammophon)
Borodin String Quartet (Ruben Aharonian, Andrei Abramenkov (violins), Igor Naidin (viola), Valentin Berlinsky (cello) (Chandos)
Takács Quartet (Edward Dusinberre, Károly Schranz (violins), Roger Tapping (viola), Andras Fejér (Decca)
Tokyo String Quartet (Peter Oundjian, Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola), Sadao Harada (cello) (BMG)
Végh Quartet (Sándor Végh, Sándor Zöldy (violins), Georges Janzer (viola) & Paul Szabo (cello) (Valois)
Amadeus String Quartet (Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel (violins), Peter Schidlof (viola), Martin Lovett (cello)
The quartets listed above rise to the technical challenge offered by Beethoven, each one capturing the symphonic structure and scope of the piece. The Amadeus Quartet deliver a heartfelt if slightly glossy reading, while those by the Tokyo, Borodin and Melos Quartets are ideally poised and played. The Végh Quartet is a classic recording.
You can chart the Arcana Beethoven playlist as it grows, with one recommended version of each piece we listen to. Catch up here!
Also written in 1806 Wölfl Piano Concerto no.5 ‘Grand Concerto Militaire’ Op.43
Next up String Quartet no.9 in C major Op.59/3 ‘Razumovsky’
Published post no.2,138 – Thursday 4 April 2024
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