Quatuor Alcan - Glenn Gould & Ernest Macmillan - String Quartets (2009)

Chicoutimi, Quebec's Alcan Quartet is noteworthy in several respects. In what may be the last survival of a once-common practice, this is a corporate-sponsored ensemble, bearing the name of the giant Canadian aluminum-smelting firm Alcan (no word here on whether that will change after the company's takeover by Brazil's Rio Tinto). And the group has investigated unusual Canadian repertory. Glenn Gould's String Quartet predates his pianistic fame; it was composed between 1953 and 1955, and published in 1956 as Op. 1. Its model is not Bach or Mozart, or any of the British music that was prominent in Canadian musical life, but early Schoenberg, and specifically Verklärte Nacht. It's a bit over the top (a condition not unknown to the young Schoenberg), with a truly drawn-out finale, but it's not dull, shifting from placid tunes to roaring group dissonances at the drop of a hat. About 33 minutes long, it's in one movement, but there are five distinct sections. The String Quartet in C minor by Ernest Macmillan, from 1914, is billed in the booklet by Irène Brisson as containing influences from Impressionism and from British music of the early part of the century, but these seem to be very studiously worked in (at the beginning of the finale, for example) to a rather academic exercise. Much more interesting are the Two Sketches for String Quartet based on French Canadian Airs (1930), which use a modal, antique sound in a novel way; they draw on religious melodies but are not really sacred in spirit. The quartet is top-notch, and the sound, from a Quebec concert hall, is quite warm, unlike many other releases from the ATMA label. Recommended for anyone interested in Canadian music or in Glenn Gould; the quartet really does contain something of his outsized artistic personality. ~ James Manheim