Quatuor scientifique

Description

"La Pantomime" and "Quatuor Scientifique"... what could these whimsical titles possibly conceal, especially surprising coming from the very serious Reicha, professor of fugue and counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1818 to 1836? The two works, which remain in manuscript form, are no joke... and were both created in 1806, in Vienna. Arriving in this city in 1801, ten years after Beethoven, who was his colleague in the orchestra of the Elector of Bonn, conducted by Joseph Reicha, Anton's uncle, he remained a friend of the latter. However, when Reicha published a collection of 36 fugues for piano in 1803 composed according to a new system of his invention, Beethoven sent a letter to the publisher (Breitkopf und Härtel) arguing that they were not, in fact, fugues. It is likely that Reicha, made aware of this criticism, was stung by it, and that La Pantomime (accompanied by an explanatory text discussing Genius and other allegorical figures, in a very solemn style) should be taken ironically, a subtle mockery of Beethoven. Surely judging afterward that the demonstration was not sufficient, Reicha undertook the composition of the Quatuor, "Scientifique" because the composer makes it a sort of manifesto, a demonstration of his new fugue system (the work includes no less than 9 fugues interspersed between the movements of a "normal" quartet). The two works have an obvious kinship in their introductory themes, and despite very different structures, they proceed from a melancholic expressiveness, even painful, especially, paradoxically, in La Pantomime. These two masterpieces recorded here by the excellent young Czech quartet named after the composer bring to light two major productions of Anton Reicha in a dazzling version. (Jean-Michel Babin-Goasdoué)