BOOKS

Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home Edward Dusinberre

208PP ISBN 9780226823430 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS $22

First violin of the Takács Quartet for nearly 30 years, Edward Dusinberre is particularly fascinated by the relationship between music as written and experienced. His first book, Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet (2016), takes us behind the scenes to discover the process (both the joys and the frustrations) of creating interpretative unanimity out of some of the finest music ever composed. His latest tome looks at ‘the different ways in which music can either alleviate or exacerbate the sense of distance from one’s homeland’, through the music of Elgar (Dusinberre was brought up in England) and Dvořák, Bartók and Britten, who all spent time away in North America (the Takács has been based at the University of Colorado for three decades).

It may sound like a challenge to counterbalance a narrative based on the Takács’s travels with music’s ability to convey a sense of isolation and separation from a composer’s homeland. Yet, by merging the two inseparably, Dusinberre creates a compelling sense of unity. In the case of Bartók’s Sixth Quartet, he points out how the work’s preoccupation with sadness (all four movements are marked mesto – ‘mournful’) reflected the composer’s desolate state of mind at the time – shortly after completing it, Bartók left Hungary for the US, never to return. Dusinberre reveals how his whole attitude to the quartet changed after performing it in the hall where Bartók gave his last concert, and visiting the house in which it was actually composed.

Edward Dusinberre (far left) with the rest of the Takács Quartet

AMANDA TIPTON

The sound of Elgar’s music never fails to evoke a sense of nostalgia for Dusinberre’s English childhood – Jacqueline du Pré’s studio recording of the Elgar Concerto was a staple fixture on the family gramophone – to the extent that when fellow students at the Juilliard poked fun at Elgar’s perceived parochialism, Dusinberre felt more than usually protective of its special qualities. This raises the whole question of music ‘travelling’ well, which Dusinberre explores in fascinating detail, pointing out the special relevance of time and place in Elgar’s music.

Most revelatory of all is the chapter headed ‘Where Britten Belongs?’, in which Dusinberre discovers extraordinary parallels between the music of the First String Quartet and Les Illuminations, with Britten’s experiences during his US sojourn, as well as the geographical impact of his homecoming on Peter Grimes. Dusinberre subtly illuminates his argument throughout with personal reminiscences and (by extension) those of the Takács, transmuting analysis and observation into something deeply touching.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

Practice Mind: The Complete Practice Model Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksander Mycyk

201PP ISBN 9780578320441 OVATION PRESS $64.99

Whether you have six minutes or six hours to practise in, this impressively comprehensive book, aimed at string players specifically, should help you get maximum benefit from the time.

The book is structured around the ‘plan, implement, evaluate’ model, covering topics such as making a practice journal, using a metronome creatively, the importance of studying the score, and the importance of recording and listening back to your practice. ‘The fear of facing reality’ is suggested as a reason why so many musicians prefer to avoid this!

Although its basic premise of planning your practice, thinking about what you’re doing (‘metacognition’) and constantly evaluating it, is useful for anyone, the book feels primarily aimed at college or postgraduate students aiming at a professional career or those already playing professionally – the people who Jensen, professor of cello at Northwestern University – and his doctorate student, Mycyk, also a teacher and professional orchestral player, spend their lives with.

The first section, the Practice Mind, looks at the psychology of learning, motivation and ways of harnessing the mind for more effective outcomes, often referring to techniques used in elite sports training. The authors suggest reading this section first, though many students might find it heavy-going, and then studying the other chapters as required.

At 200-odd A4 pages it is certainly not an easy read, and might appear off-puttingly weighty to most students, who might hope to have many of these suggestions conveyed through their teachers rather than having to find them in a book. To counteract this, efforts have been made to make the book more user-friendly. The text boxes ‘From Hans’ and ‘From Oleksander’ containing little asides from the authors’ personal experience, are always instructive, as are the scenarios of particular students and their challenges. The two-column format breaks up the text, but sometimes when a music example or diagram is inserted, it is not entirely clear where to read next.

JANET BANKS

Got Beethoven: My First 40 Years with the Brodsky Quartet Paul Cassidy

311PP ISBN 9781803130590 TROUBADOR £12.99

This is the sequel to Get Beethoven!, Paul Cassidy’s account of growing up in Derry and taking his first steps in music (reviewed in February 2021). We are given to understand that now he is in the Brodsky Quartet, Beethoven is an integral part of his life, although far more space is given to the pop and rock stars with whom the Brodskys have been associated – I fear the endless parade of glittering names makes my eyes glaze over.

The Irish-boyo-in-a-pub style remains and our hero is both gullible and bereft of a good editor and checker. It does not instil confidence when, as early as Page XII, we are given a stream of dodgy, even daft, information about Adolph Brodsky, after whom the quartet was named. Zoltán Székely, never more than an excellent club tennis player, is said to have won Wimbledon – he is also traduced musically. A number of first and/or surnames are spelt wrong.

It is just as well Jessye Norman is dead, as she once sued someone for attaching to her the hoary old story retailed on page 73 – Ifirst saw it told about Ernestine Schumann-Heink and it actually stems from a Victorian Punch cartoon of a fat woman getting on to a bus. A rant against Wigmore Hall on pages 126–7 is embarrassing to read and gains an element of farce when Cassidy mixes up his Bond villains – it is Blofeld, not Dr No, who constantly strokes a cat. If Cassidy ever mentions the surname of the Brodsky Quartet’s third leader, Daniel, I missed it (it is Rowland).

Fortunately there is solid sustenance and interest here, if you can winkle it out. On pages 76–79 Cassidy relates how the Brodskys’ relationships with Harrison Birtwistle and Maria João Pires were torpedoed by outside interests. On pages 84–5 are pithy observations comparing the way sports stars are featherbedded with the fates of musicians, mostly left to fend for themselves.

Travelling with four people seems to multiply the chance of a mishap, and there are plenty of good quartet stories here, such as the one where the group touched down at Bologna to find that when Jacqueline Thomas – the Brodsky cellist and Mrs Cassidy – opened her Stevenson flight case to check her instrument, it was in several pieces, bridge collapsed and fingerboard off. Both local BA representatives played the cello and could offer a temporary replacement. Another time, the Brodskys discovered that several of their instruments were coming apart, owing to the fearfully low humidity in the hall.

Cassidy is understandably proud of the out-of-the-way classical music he and his colleagues have recorded – Ican personally vouch for their Respighi and I must seek out the Spanish pieces he mentions. They have not yet done a complete Beethoven cycle on record but have two sequences of the Shostakovich quartets under their belts – Cassidy once found himself sitting next to the composer’s widow Irina at dinner and, true to form, made sure he got a tip from her about interpretation.

Two of the Brodskys have been in place for half a century and Cassidy has completed four decades. On pages 224–5 we learn of the physical toll that playing the viola has exacted on the Cassidy frame but he leaves us saying: ‘I feel as motivated today as on that first visit to Manchester [for his audition].’ You cannot fault his enthusiasm. As before, the book is not illustrated but photos can be found at www.paulcassidy.org

TULLY POTTER