Schoeck: Notturno

The Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck (1886 – 1957) is best known as a writer of art songs and for his opera, Penthesilea. His late romantic oeuvre had come to be viewed as old-fashioned by the time of his death, but Notturno is a timeless, personal work for string quartet and voice. The five-movement song cycle sets to music several poems by Nikolaus Lenau and a fragment by the Swiss author Gottfried Keller. Notturno never comes off as a simple case of soloist plus accompaniment; Schoeck beautifully integrates text, voice, and strings. (Christian Gerhaher’s appealing baritone and the Rosamunde Quartett’s timbres are wonderfully melded throughout this recording.) The first and third movements are brimming with sky and stream imagery, and the gloomy sound is potent. The piece’s two short movements contrast nicely: the uptempo second section finds Gerhauer’s edgy performance radiating tension, while the fourth movement has an air of pained resignation. The final movement lifts the listener out of the piece’s darkness, particularly with its setting of Keller’s words which express his wish to rise up and join the stars.