The subtitle of
Tchaikovsky
's
String Sextet in D minor, Op. 70, "Souvenir de Florence,"
suggests that it is among the composer's lighter works, but really, only its elegant third movement, which apparently occurred to the composer during an Italian sojourn, fits that characterization. As for the rest,
labored over the music for several years, putting it aside and taking it up again. The sextet has an intensity peculiar to late
, plunging in on an unresolved chord right at the outset as if the troubled dialogue it embodies were already underway before the music began. The
Nash Ensemble
captures the way
's chamber music seems to strive toward symphonic dimensions (the
Piano Trio in A minor
is another good example) but then is confined with great tension to the smaller format. Listen to the passage about two minutes into the finale, where the texture contracts to a single note and then begins to expand again; it is masterfully handled. The
String Sextet in D major, Op. 10
, of the 17-year-old
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
, a work that did not receive its premiere recording until the 1980s, is even more heated, perhaps the chamber work
Mahler
would have written if he had written one. The traces of early
Schoenberg
are also heard in the work, and once again, the
's performance is full-blooded and forceful. This is a major late Romantic chamber release, with unidiomatic church sound among the very few weaknesses. This album hit classical best-seller charts in early 2024. ~ James Manheim