Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995)
Quatuor à cordes n° 1, op. 22
Trio à cordes, op. 1

Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975)
"Echoes", pour quatuor à cordes

Ensemble Merian

Stefano Succi, violon
Olga Yukhananova, violon
Fred Günther, alto
Ulrich Horn, violoncelle

Cet album nous permet de découvrir la musique de chambre de deux compositeurs surtout connus pour leur partition pour le cinéma hollywoodien. Qu'il s'agisse du quatuor ou du trio de Miklos Rozsa, ou d'Echoes de Bernard Herrmann, ces œuvres sont très rarement enregistrées et restent à découvrir. Le premier, héritier du post-romantisme allemand, compose son trio à 20 ans, le quatuor datant lui de 1950, soit après 15 années "américaines". L'un et l'autre sont pleinement de leur temps, imprégnés de tradition hongroise, sans recherche de pittoresque superficiel et apportant leurs propres couleurs au tableau créé par Bartok, Kodaly et Lajtha, loin de tout cinéma. Bernard Herrmann fut quant à lui de ceux qui défendirent une musique proprement américaine aux côtés d'Aaron Copland. Composé en 1965, Echoes fait écho à ses meilleures partitions pour le cinéma et à leurs expérimentations. Lyrisme inquiet et toujours retenu, secrets obsessionnels qui se dévoilent presque… La "Herrmann's touch" se déploie. L'ensemble Merian joue ces œuvres pour pour elles-même et nous avons le sentiment de toucher au plus personnel et secret de deux compositeurs majeurs. (Marc Ossorguine)

New recordings of little-known chamber music by two giants of Hollywood: the exciting debut on record of the Frankfurt-based ensemble merian. While producing a string of hit scores for MGM such as the Oscar-winning Ben Hur, Miklós Rózsa (1907-95) continued to add to his distinguished catalogue of works in classical forms, often writing in a more abstract and severe style than his late-Romantic music for the movies. Rózsa himself remarked that ‘in 1948, a new style began to appear in my Piano Sonata—more percussive, contrapuntal, aggressive. The String Quartet [No. 1, 1950] continued in this vein. Maybe it was an inner protest against the excessive amount of conventional music I had had to write for conventional pictures.’In terms of influence, the tone of the Quartet (dedicated to Peter Ustinov) is closer to his teacher Kodály than that of Bartók even in the driven second movement, though even the intense lyricism of the third movement scarcely contains an angry mood which is finally resolved by the exhilarating finale. The more conventionally Romantic strains of the String Trio date from Ro´zsa’s student days at the Leipzig Conservatoire in 1927, assimilating Brahms as well as the edgier work of his Hungarian elders. Breitkopf & Härtel published the work in 1929 as op. 1, but in 1974, the composer made major revisions to the original score, including numerous cuts, for its first recording. The String Trio, as presented here, is the world premiere recording of the work as it was originally composed by. Breitkopf & Härtel published the work in 1929 as op. 1. In 1974, Rózsa made major cuts to the original score for its first recording. The ensemble merian presents the full, original version of the trio. The album concludes in a quietly introspective vein with Echoes, the string quartet written late in life by Bernard Herrmann: one of a series of intimate, personal works akin to Richard Strauss’s ‘Indian Summer’ which produced Metamorphosen and the Four Last Songs. Evoking the muted textures of Debussy but the sombre mood of Shostakovich’s later quartet writing, the 10 continuous sections of Echoes nevertheless recall the flavour of Herrmann’s finest film music, especially the claustrophobic mood of Vertigo. Comprised of seasoned players from Frankfurt's two full-time symphony orchestras, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, ensemble merian was established for the purpose of recording of neglected classical works by composers more closely associated with motion pictures. The present release marks its debut album.