Don’t Shoot the Messengers: An intriguing project reminds Richard Laing of what he’s missing

Review of Boten der Liebe: Wagner Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, Wesendonck Lieder (arr. Höricht), Mahler String Quartet 1.0 (arr. Höricht). Voyager Quartet, Wahnfried, Bayreuth, 2020 (Solo Musica, 1 CD).

November 2021, Volume 15, Number 3, 84–5.

There has been precious little Wagner in the last year, and there is a temptation to get our fix where we can. The innovative Voyager Quartet offers us a potential tonic in the form of its CD Boten der Liebe (Messengers of Love). The Voyager’s series of Beethoven recitals at Haus Wahnfried formed part of the alternative Bayreuth Festival in 2020, and the musicians have returned to Wagner’s home for this recording. Theirs is a daunting challenge – to use four players to present music sometimes intended for a hundred. Andreas Höricht, the quartet’s viola player, has ‘transcripted [sic] and recomposed’ the Tristan Prelude for the group’s spartan forces, along with the Wesendonck Lieder and a selection of Mahler, to weave an intriguing if at times frustrating journey through some of the most passionate music of the late Romantic era.