 Fondé en Allemagne de l’Est (1985) par Tim Vogler, Franck Reinecke (violons), Stefan Fehlandt (alto) et Stephan Forck (violoncelle), le Quatuor Vogler s’est distingué, dès l’année suivante, en remportant le Premier Prix au Concours d’Évian. Ce coffret de trois CD, paru à l’occasion du trentième anniversaire, prouve l’éclectisme d’une formation jouant aussi bien Haydn que Feldman. On y croise des compositeurs associés à la première moitié du XXe siècle (Ravel, Respighi, Weill), d’autres à la seconde (Henze, Kagel), mais encore nos contemporains Antón García Abril (1933-2021) – encore en vie au moment de l’enregistrement – et Jörg Widmann (né en 1973). Au fil du temps, l’Aragonais s’est éloigné de l’avant-garde de sa jeunesse pour défendre une tradition nationale, si bien qu’on goûtera les cinq parties de "Canciones del jardín secreto" (2001) moins pour leur audace que pour la mélancolie, portée par la voix profonde du mezzo-soprano Zandra McMaster. À l’inverse, le Munichois surprend avec un Quatrième Quatuor (2005) aux amorces lyriques contrariées. La variété des moyens techniques (halètements, rebonds, etc.) contribue à celle des climats et captive l’oreille de bout en bout. (Laurent Bergnach) Ladies and Gentlemen, during the musical season of 2014/15, the Vogler Quartet celebrated its 30th anniversary. To keep a reminder of this event for you and ourselves, we recorded live our four concerts at the Konzerthaus Berlin and compiled selected compositions thereof for a CD box. The result is in your hands. We dec ided to present onl y works composed during the 20th or 21st century. It is common to all these compositions that they strive for beauty, and that they reach it. For example, there is, at the end of Henze's third quartet, a slight, sad reminiscence of Beethoven's 'Muss es sein?' from his last quartet op. 135. The whole work is pervaded by an inclining to the so-called 'Tristan chord', although this never appears in its original form. Moreover, Henze also cites Berg's 'Lyrische Suite', that reflects Wagner's opera 'Tristan und Isolde' and the 'Liebestod'. This third quartet, an unsuccessful work of Henze, shows a deeply broken, romantic spirit that may not be directly accessible because of its artistic encryption, but nonetheless reveals deep beauty. We could work out Kagel's 5th quartet just before its world premiere with the composer himself. We expected a 'musical revolutionary' and a sharp ironist, but, at the Berlin university of music, we met a delicate, wise old man, subtle and listening exactly, who even made changes in the score while we worked on it together. The search for the path; at the beginning of the 20th century, before the radical change brought about by the 12-tone music, the urgency of the quest for new musical idioms was clearly perceptable, and it is in this sense that we understand Ravel's quartet. The use of far-east and Basque motives in a nearly expressionistic manner, woven into cristalline but nevertheless very touching beauty, can appear very present-day, if one decides for this view. Kurt Weill's quartet op.8 (we used an earlier concert recording of this work for the CD box) uses quite another idiomatic modus, it reminds us already of his later song-style, but it also fits well in the time of its origin, the twenties. Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix. The music evokes a picture. Jörg Widmann's 4th quartet was finalized not until the night before its world premiere. Over the two weeks before, we daily received a new page of the score by fax. We assembled the final version of the quartet's score on the very day of the concert on the train from Berlin to Essen. The rehearsal with Jörg took place on this same day as well. The quartet works with tensions between Baroque and modernity. Sounds, breathing, alienations. Again, beauty will be found if looked for. Antón García Abril is the senior champion of the new spanish music, and since we had the good luck to rehearse with him in person his songs 'Canciones del jardín secreto' with the mezzo-soprano Zandra McMaster and to present them in concert in Spain and in Berlin, we are pleased to include parts of the Berlin concert on these CDs as well. Abril worked with us, just as did Kagel, delicately but insistent on his music, firmly, until a specific Andalusian tone was found. We thank the Konzerthaus Berlin for the support, Zandra McMaster and Michael McHale for the musical teamwork, Tobias Hoff for the recording, and Ulli Blobel for his enthusiasm to present this CD-box with 'New Music'.
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