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RECORD KEEPING | Disbanded Cypress String Quartet Goes Out With Brahms

By Paul E. Robinson on March 7, 2017

BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major Op. 18 and String Sextet No. 2 in G major Op. 36. Cypress String Quartet. Barry Shiffman, viola. Zuill Bailey, cello. Avie AV2294. Total Time: 76:50.
BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major Op. 18 and String Sextet No. 2 in G major Op. 36. Cypress String Quartet. Barry Shiffman, viola. Zuill Bailey, cello. Avie AV2294. Total Time: 76:50.

The Cypress String Quartet, based in San Francisco (CA), has decided to disband after 20 years of concerts and recordings. It is always difficult when careers come to an end, but in the quartet field, the wonder is that so many last as long as they do. Often — such are the demands of rehearsals, concerts and touring — members of string quartets spend more time with each other than they do with their spouses and families. It’s hardly the money that keeps a quartet together. Even the best of them don’t earn a fortune, and when their modest fees are cut four ways, there is not much left over for individual discretionary spending.

The Cypress String Quartet has chosen to go out in style with a recording that features collaboration with two of their colleagues in two masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Brahms’ two string sextets, composed when he was a young man of 27 (Op. 18) and 33 (Op. 36) respectively, are mature works in every possible way. Each has an omnipresent autumnal quality that foreshadows his late works, and the string writing is remarkable for its understanding of what each instrument could do, and how they could work together to create textures both original and masterful.

The string sextet was by no means a traditional genre for composers in Brahms time. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert wrote quartets and quintets for strings, but not sextets. Brahms, an old-fashioned composer in many ways, broke new ground with the string sextets and did it with great success. Few composers since have taken on the challenge.

The members of the Cypress String Quartet studied at all the best schools — Juilliard, the Royal College of Music, Indiana and Eastman — and as a quartet they spent time being mentored by the Amadeus Quartet and mastering the basic quartet literature. They also commissioned works from  Jennifer Higdon, Kevin Puts, and many others.

For the Brahms Sextets on this recording, they are joined by Barry Shiffman, Associate Dean and Director of Chamber Music at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Shiffman, who was second violinist with the St. Lawrence String Quartet for many years, plays viola in these Brahms sextets. The extra cellist is Zuill Bailey, professor of cello at the University of Texas at El Paso and soloist on a recent recording of Michael Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway (Naxos 8.559798).

The Cypress String Quartet and their colleagues take what might be called a “modern” approach to Brahms. Absolutely rigorous when it comes to tempo and dynamic markings, they play it “straight”, as it were. It could be argued that they get to the heart of the matter, namely, what the composer actually wrote as opposed to what tradition has added to the music over the years. This recording, somewhat shrill in the upper frequencies and lacking in warmth, reinforces this approach.

Knowing that the Cypress String Quartet had been mentored by the Amadeus Quartet, I went back to the recordings (DG 419875) of these works made by the Amadeus in the 1960s. I was surprised to discover that the performances could not be more different. The Amadeus Quartet, joined by violist Cecil Aronowitz and cellist William Pleeth, plays these works with a flexibility and a dramatic power totally unlike that of their protégées. Some might call it ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘too Viennese,’ but to my ears, the Amadeus brings out much deeper emotions in this music than does the Cypress. Just listen to the heartbreaking way they get to the essence of the music in the last ten bars of the slow movement of Op. 36, realizing the markings “poco a poco ritardando” then molto ritardando” to perfection. It always amazed me how much variety of tone and feeling Amadeus’ first violinist Norbert Brainin could find in each phrase he played; in these 1960s Brahms recordings, he is just wonderful.

The second movement theme and variations of Op. 18 is one of Brahms greatest achievements. The augmented Cypress String Quartet plays it very well. By comparison, the Amadeus Quartet plays it not only “very well”, but with real passion, a much greater dynamic range than that of the Cypress, and an uncanny give and take between the players.

There is also a much older recording of this music (Sony 44851), made at the Casals Festival in Prades, France in 1952 with a young Isaac Stern on first violin and Pablo Casals playing first cello, which might be described as “old-fashioned” by some but not by me. It may also be too personal and idiosyncratic for some listeners. Personally, I would characterize this 1952 recording as “one for the ages.”

A much later recording (1989) also led by Isaac Stern but this time with Yo-Yo Ma on first cello is also excellent (Sony Classical S2K 45 820).

[Correction: March 8, 2017; 7:58 a.m. A previous version of this piece included a comment pertaining to female string quartet players foregoing having children. The statement was removed as it is unsubstantiated. The choice between having a family and a career in the arts is one made by people of all genders and to single out women is unfair. We apologize to the readers who have been offended by implications the statement makes regarding women and career-building.]

For more RECORD KEEPING, see HERE.

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