Gringolts Quartet
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Mendelssohn & Enescu: Octets / Gringolts Quartet, Meta4
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REVIEW:
At a purely technical level there are few recordings of the Mendelssohn Octet that come anywhere near the supreme expertise of the combined Gringolts Quartet and Meta4. There is a thrilling sense of the music being lived through as an emotional imperative, and the ensemble creates a simply glorious corporate sonority.
Such is the depth of sound created by these expert players that there are times in the Enescu they sound like a string orchestra in full flow. They hurl themselves into the fray with a sensitivity to semantic context that is deeply immersive and compelling. An outstanding coupling.
– The Strad (Julian Haylock)
Schoenberg: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 4 / Gringolts Quartet
Conceived thirty years apart, both works on the present disc came into being at difficult times in the life of Arnold Schoenberg. Emotional stress caused by a marital crisis around 1907-1908 is often claimed to have contributed to the break with tonality that the Second String Quartet represents – in the course of the work Schoenberg moves from the post-Wagnerian chromaticism of Late Romanticism to atonality, with the final movement lacking a key signature altogether. Another unusual feature is the inclusion of a soprano in the two last movements. Schoenberg himself later wrote: 'I was inspired by poems of Stefan George, the German poet ... and, surprisingly, without any expectation on my part, these songs showed a style quite different from everything I had written before.'
Almost thirty years later, in 1936, the String Quartet No. 4 was one of the first works that Schoenberg composed in the U.S.A. after having been forced into exile by the threat of the Nazi regime in Germany. He had left Europe in 1933, but the first years in his new home country had been taxing, with health problems and a difficult work schedule involving teaching in both Boston and New York. If the second quartet is a key work of musical modernism, pointing towards an as yet unknown future, String Quartet No. 4 rests securely on the principles of twelve-tone composition that Schoenberg had developed during the intervening years – but makes use of these principles in a somewhat freer, more relaxed manner than his previous twelve-tone works. The two works are given full-blooded performances by the Gringolts Quartet, joined by the Swedish soprano Malin Hartelius in the Second String Quartet.
Saint-Saëns, Piazzolla, Marsalis et al: Close Encounters / Lopes, Lutsyk, Gringolts Quartet
This album is the fulfilment of a dream and the result of over five years of planning, developing and preparing a unique collaborative project between composers, arrangers and musicians – 6 pieces, 6 composers, 4 premieres – What inspired me to record this album was the fascinating way the sound of the bassoon blends with the string quartet. My choice of repertoire was based on pure pleasure – I chose works that I love to play, some original, others arranged, and asked composers I admire so much to write for this combination.
In two of the works I added the double bass, which enriches them very much and helps immensely to encounter different sound worlds. To create this with musicians of this calibre was simply wonderful. Their interest, curiosity and flexibility together with the skill, calm and experience of our sound engineer, Andreas Werner, and the fact that we were able to record in the legendary Radiostudio in Zurich, makes me feel so privileged. I couldn't be happier with the result which I hope you too will enjoy!
Brahms: String Quintets / Maijala, Gringolts Quartet
Johannes Brahms's soul shines through in his chamber music. Following in the footsteps of Mozart and Schubert, Brahms wrote two string quintets that rank among his greatest chamber music masterpieces. He took up this genre rather late in life, but in it he was able to express both the joy and the nostalgia he carried with him into his maturity. The Quintet in F major, Op. 88, held a special place in the composer's heart, and he considered it to be his finest work. A bucolic spirit and a gentle joie de vivre pervade the work, sometimes referred to as the 'spring quintet'. A majestic, pastoral first movement testifies to this cheerfulness, followed by a melancholy movement before the spirited finale. The Quintet in G major, Op. 111, also radiates vigour, expressing the composer's strength, nostalgia and exuberance. With echoes of Viennese folk music, the piece has been referred to as the 'Prater quintet', a reference to the famous Viennese park.
These two deep and melancholic works are played by the Gringolts Quartet, whose previous recordings for BIS, particularly those devoted to Arnold Schoenberg's quartets, have won high praise, and who are joined by sought-after Finnish violist Lilli Maijala.
REVIEWS:
There’s a wealth of characterization within this richly unified, bronze-dark ensemble. A deep-dug, chunky tone, often quite rugged, is offset by moments of intense sweetness, as well as great delicacy and refinement.
— BBC Music Magazine
The players adapt effortlessly to the disparate range of styles Brahms melds into a coherent unity.
— MusicWeb International
