Thieriot String Quartets on Toccata Classics

[4candles]

Members will soon see the latest release of Thieriot's music on the Toccata Classics Pipeline, to include three string quartets in G minor, C minor and B flat major, played by the Amadeus Chamber Musicians.

[Alan Howe]

Great news. Thanks very much!
Apparently these were published in 2004, 2004 and 2005 respectively. It'll be interesting to find out when they were written, bearing in mind Thieriot's dates (1838-1919). My guess would be late...

[Mark Thomas]

This is very good news, Thieriot is a seriously impressive composer.

[eschiss1]

Is there a reason behind your guess for their late date of composition (have you seen any of them or heard any of them)? The only information I have is that Pauler edited them for Amadeus-Verlag, and this makes me think of Thuille's 2 very early string quartets similarly published in similar editions (maybe because of the slightly similar surnames...)

[Alan Howe]

Is there a reason behind your guess

No - that's why it was a guess, although the Piano Quartets in Vol.3 were late. I'm probably wrong.

[eschiss1]

Wish I could locate a copy of the prefaces to the Amadeus editions. Or maybe I should try just asking Wiki03 - yes, that...

[Alan Howe]

We may soon find out from the Toccata Pipeline.

[Alan Howe]

Here's the forthcoming recording:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9810026--thieriot-chamber-music-vol-4

[John Boyer]

Great news. Thanks very much!
Apparently these were published in 2004, 2004 and 2005 respectively. It'll be interesting to find out when they were written, bearing in mind Thieriot's dates (1838-1919). My guess would be late...

The notes indicate they are all undated.  One, the G-minor, has "Leipzig" written on it, which the editor thinks would place it as either 1867 or 1897, since Thieriot was in that city in both those years.  I, however, would suggest dates that are much earlier.  All three quartets feel like student works, looking to models no later than Schubert.  Were I to guess who wrote these (and I wouldn't guess Thieriot, based on his other works I have heard), I would say someone slightly predating mature Mendelssohn and Schumann, say a conservative composer born in the generation of 1800 and writing around 1840.

They were not my cup of tea, made all the more disappointing by the Amadeus Chamber Musicians' unsure intonation.  It's not fatal, but it's always just on the edge, which makes for tense listening.

I'd be curious to read what others think.

[Mark Thomas]

I haven't listened to my copy yet, John, but this is potentially disappointing as Thieriot has generally been a rewarding discovery.

[John Boyer]

Yes, compared to the recording of the two piano quartets included in volume three, this represents a considerable falling off.

Looking back at my comments from that release, I see that intonation was a problem even then, though it probably wasn't as bad because the musicians could always rely on the piano to keep them better in tune. Here, in a pure string quartet, they are on less sure footing.

[Mark Thomas]

I've only managed to listen to the B flat quartet today, but on the evidence of that I'm sorry to say that I agree with what John wrote in his post. With the exception of the second movement Larghetto, which has the depth and, I suppose one might say, seriousness, which we have come to expect from Thieriot, the work otherwise has an uncharacteristically shallow feel to it which is really disappointing. There's often a thinness to the texture in Thieriot's writing, not present in those of his later chamber compositions which we already know and, as John also pointed out, that exposes the iffy intonation of the Amadeus Chamber Musicians here and there. What a shame. 

[Ilja]

Of these, i think the G minor quartet is the most enjoyable; it doesn't seem to strive for depth, and I thought it an enjoyable way to spend 25 minutes. But agreed, the other two can't quite live up to Thieriot's usual standard.

The one thing that immediately struck me when looking at the cover was that the designer obviously used Thieriot's portrait photograph without a lot of care. It's horribly overexposed, and apparently hastily colorized using Photoshop's neural filters colorization. This can be seen from the abundance of brown and purple hues, but most evidently in the pink mustache. These filters are primarily meant to use on 20th century photography and will frequently incorrectly apply lipstick colorization. As happened to poor Ferdinand here.