Mary Bevan / Allan Clayton / Carducci String Quartet / Graham J. Lloyd IAN VENABLES Love Lives Beyond the Tomb

                                                LOVE LIVES BEYOND THE TOMB

Carducci String Quartet DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets Nos. 4, 8 &11

Britain's young Carducci String Quartet has (or have) emerged as specialists in the music of Shostakovich, drawing audiences to performances of the complete cycle and embarking on recording of the set with this assortment of three representative works. Most of Shostakovich's 15 string quartets were written during the later part of his career, and the genre was especially well suited to reflecting his inner reactions to the various public forms of conformity to the Communist regime that he had to display. These quartets, from 1949, 1960, and 1966, respectively, show different facets of those reactions. The Carducci players capture the feel of the String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83, especially well; the work begins in a sunny pastoral mood seemingly tailor-made for Socialist Realism, but the mood soon deteriorates, and Shostakovich caps things off with one of his Jewish finales. That would have been seen as an oblique on Stalin, who was increasingly anti-Semitic in his old age. The String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, is one of Shostakovich's most-performed works. It is dedicated to "the victims of fascism and war," but it soon becomes clear that Shostakovich numbered himself as one of the victims involved, and that a more local version of totalitarianism was the referent. The Carduccis also do well with the String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122, a unique series of brief, sardonic outbursts bearing echoes of Beethoven's late language. Signum's church sound is not ideal, but this release introduces a new group of confident young Shostakovich interpreters. (James Manheim)

Julian Bliss / Carducci Quartet DAVID BRUCE Gumboots JOHANNES BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet

There is a paradox in music, and indeed all art - the fact that life-enriching art has been produced, even inspired by conditions of tragedy, brutality and oppression, a famous example being Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, written while he was in a prisoner of war camp. Gumboot Dancing bears this trait - it was born out of the brutal labour conditions in South Africa under Apartheid, in which black miners where chained together and wore Gumboots (wellington boots) while they worked in the flooded gold mines, because it was cheaper for the owners to supply the boots than to drain the floodwater from the mine. Apparently slapping the boots and chains was used by the workers as a form of communication which was otherwise banned in the mine, and this later developed into a form of dance. If the examples of Gumboot Dancing available online are anything to go by, it is characterised by a huge vitality and zest for life. So this for me is a striking example of how something beautiful and life-enhancing can come out of something far more negative. Of course this paradox has a far simpler explanation - the resilience of the human spirit.

My 'Gumboots' is in two parts of roughly equal length, the first is tender and slow moving, at times 'yearning'; at times seemingly expressing a kind of tranquility and inner peace. The second is a complete contrast, consisting of five, ever-more-lively 'gumboot dances', often joyful and always vital. 

However, although there are some African music influences in the music, I don't see the piece as being specifically 'about' the Gumboot dancers, if anything it could be seen as an abstract celebration of the rejuvinating power of dance, moving as it does from introspection through to celebration. I would like to think however, that the emotional journey of the piece, and specifically the complete contrast between the two halves will force the listener to conjecture some kind of external 'meaning' to the music - the tenderness of the first half should 'haunt' us as we enjoy the bustle of the second; that bustle itself should force us to question or revaluate the tranquility of the first half. But to impose a meaning beyond that would be stepping on dangerous ground - the fact is you will choose your own meaning, and hear your own story, whether I want you to or not. (David Bruce)

Carducci String Quartet / Julian Bliss MOZART Clarinet Quintet in A Major K. 581 WEBER Clarinet Quintet in B flat Major

Julian Bliss joins the Carducci String Quartet in performances of two seminal works – Weber’s Clarinet Quintet in B flat Major, Op. 34 and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K.581. 

Both Mozart and Weber were inspired by the artisty of performers of their day (Anton Stadler in Mozart’s case, and Heinrich Baermann in Weber’s). Their technical prowess, tonal quality and imaginative range allowed each composer to expand the clarinet repertoire with these works, which remain pre-eminent in the genre.