[6/25/2011] Preview: More of the Beethoven Septet and the Schubert Octet -- two Andantes (continued)

Gervase de Peyer, the Melos Ensemble clarinetist, in London, 2005. While googling the Melos Ensemble players, I kept finding obituaries (from the 1970s through the 2000s) until I came to the great clarinetist, born in 1926 and still with us! In addition, I found a lovely two-part interview with him done in 2005 by John Robert Brown (part 1, part 2).


BEETHOVEN: Septet for Winds and Strings in E-flat, Op. 20:
iv. Tema con variazioni: Andante

Melos Ensemble: Gervase de Peyer, clarinet; Neill Sanders, horn; William Waterhouse, bassoon; Emanuel Hurwitz, violin; Cecil Aronowitz, viola; Terence Weil, cello; Adrian Beers, double bass. EMI, recorded March and Oct. 1969


SCHUBERT: Octet for Winds and Strings in F, D. 803:
iv. Andante with variations

Melos Ensemble: Gervase de Peyer, clarinet; Neill Sanders, horn; William Waterhouse, bassoon; Emanuel Hurwitz and Ivor McMahon, violins; Cecil Aronowitz, viola; Terence Weil, cello; Adrian Beers, double bass. EMI, recorded December 1967


ABOUT THOSE THEMES . . .

The theme Beethoven used for his Septet variations movement is generally identified as "a Rhenish folksong," "Ach Schiffer, lieber Schiffer." However, this information is invariably credited to Beethoven's friend Carl Czerny, being presumably what the composer told him -- nobody seems to have independent knowledge of such a folksong. Hmm.

Schubert's theme, however, is easily verifiable as his own.

SCHUBERT: Die Freunde von Salamanka
(The Friends from Salamanca), D. 326:
Act II, Duet, "Gelagert unterm hellen Dach"

DIEGO: Sheltered under the transparent roof
of the trees, by the silver brook,
the shepherd yearns for his fair one
and laments in wild tones.
LAURA: The shepherdess in the bushes listens
to the strain that rises so melodiously;
to her it is as if his songs
reechoed more sweetly her own wishes.
DIEGO: However gloomy and black life is,
does not true life brighten it?
LAURA: One who has found love is safe
from all grief, from every care.
LAURA and DIEGO: Then let the golden sun of love
shine on our hearts' new bliss
and look with unclouded gaze
upon our joy and happiness.

[translation by Lionel Salter]

Carol Wyatt (s), Laura; Eberhard Büchner (t), Diego; Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Vienna), Theodor Guschlbauer, cond. DG, recorded c1980

OUR FRIENDS THE MELOS ENSEMBLE

The ensemble was a pool of players who could collectively encompass most any piece of chamber music written. (It seems to me that we've already encountered Cecil Aronowitz, one of the group's prime movers, as the only person the Amadeus Quartet invited to play with them when they needed a second violist.) As I noted above, it was depressing to find that except for Gervase de Peyer the fine musicians we hear in these performances are all gone.

Gervase de Peyer, clarinet (born 1926)
Neill Sanders, horn (1923-1992)
William Waterhouse, bassoon (1931-2007)
Emanuel Hurwitz, violin (1919-2006)
Ivor McMahon, violin (1924-1972)
Cecil Aronowitz, viola (1916-1978)
Terence Weil, cello (1912-1995)
Adrian Beers, double bass (1916-2004)

Their recordings are still very much with us, though. Last night I noted the EMI twofer set that includes both the Beethoven Septet and the Schubert Octet along with Mendelssohn's glorious Octet for Strings and an early Beethoven Octet. Just this year EMI released a nine-CD anthology of Melos Ensemble recordings.


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