Dramatic and expressive interpretation of Haydn, on a quest in a time before the "classical" sonata form had been established.

The Doric String Quartet is firmly established as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics around the globe. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, the Quartet here embarks on a significant new recording project – the complete string quartets by Beethoven. This first volume combines works from Beethoven’s early, middle, and late period.

The six quartets Op. 18 were the first he composed, in 1799 and 1800, encouraged by Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz, a significant patron of the arts. Once he had completed the set, Beethoven heavily revised the first three quartets, writing to a friend: ‘I have changed it considerably; for I have only now learned to write quartets correctly, as you will see when you receive them.’

Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky was the Russian ambassador to the Vieneese court, and the dedicatee of the three quartets Op. 59. The last of the middle-period quartets, Op. 95 (Serioso) was dedicated to Beethoven’s close friend and accomplished cellist Nikolaus Zmeskall and is regarded as showing a glimpse of what would come: Beethoven’s late quartets.

Extremely complex and largely misunderstood by musicians and audiences in Beethoven's day, these quartets are now widely considered to be among the greatest musical compositions of all time, and have inspired many later composers. Op. 127, featured in this volume, is the first of these monumental works.

After the six Op. 18 quartets, the much-acclaimed Chiaroscuro Quartet now turns to two masterpieces from Beethoven’s middle and late periods. String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, Op. 74, nicknamed ‘Harp’ because of the abundant pizzicati in its first movement, comes across as a genial and unproblematic work that was very well received immediately upon publication and has remained one of the composer’s best-loved quartets. String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130, is in a very different vein. Belonging to the series of so-called ‘late’ quartets composed between 1824 and 1826, it is a six-movement structure modelled on an eighteenth-century divertimento, adding two movements to the traditional four-movement scheme: an Alla danza tedesca and a Cavatina. Despite its evocation of an archaic dance, the Alla danza tedesca is typically Beethovenian, with its original treatment of dynamics. The Cavatina, which moved the composer to tears during its composition, is a lyrical and moving piece. Beethoven had intended to conclude this imposing work with a large-scale fugue, but its boldness baffled his first listeners and, at the request of his publisher, he resorted instead to a more approachable movement presenting a mixture of laconic dryness and, in places, tender lyricism.

REVIEW:

Though there’s no shortage of recordings of the Beethoven quartets, versions by groups taking an historically informed approach to these works, such as these from the Chiaroscuro Quartet, are still relatively rare. The ensemble's sound world is warmer, more expressively flexible and transparent than we have become so used to in this familiar music. The wonderfully paced opening of the E flat Quartet Op 74, grows steadily in insistence, until it blossoms into melody in a totally unforced way, setting the tone for everything that follows; there seem to be no preconceptions in these performances, everything comes from the music itself.

The challenges of the B flat Quartet Op 130 are on a different level, and not every decision the Chiaroscuro make in that work is convincing – the great slow movement, the Cavatina, is taken just a fraction too fast, for instance, but the finale that follows (the replacement that Beethoven composed in 1826, not the original Grosse Fuge) has a wonderfully clipped character that, like a lot in these performances, seems perfectly appropriate.

-- The Guardian (Andrew Clements)

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 7 lasts no more than twelve minutes. The composer wrote it in March 1960 and dedicated it to his first wife Nina Vasilyevna Varzar - or rather, to her memory, for she had died five years earlier of an insidious form of cancer; suddenly, and without warning. It is a very personal work, one that is close to the composer's heart, for here Shostakovich breaks the strict sequence of keys he imposed on himself. Alban Berg's String Quartet No.1 has 2 movements, bears the opus number 3, and is nevertheless considered the composer's first autonomous work, even though the composer himself points out that he received it personally from Schönberg. An homage to Arnold Schönberg, then, who propelled his pupil into an independent career with this journeyman piece? Or is it really a declaration of love? While working on his Opus 3, Alban has already been hopelessly in love with Helene for a long while. Georg Alexander, alias György Sandor Ligeti, completed his first string quartet in 1954, when he was still living in Budapest at the age of thirty-one and recently divorced. For the second time! His first marriage, to his childhood sweetheart Brigitte, lasted only three years, and the second, to the psychology student Veronika Spitz, was entered into for purely political reasons. In 1952, Veronika, who came from a family of former factory owners, was in danger of being deported to a labour camp by the communist regime in Hungary as a representative of the bourgeoisie, and it was only by getting married to Ligeti that a semblance of protection could be afforded to her. As soon as the danger is averted following the death of Stalin, they divorce as agreed.

Second and last volume of Krongold’s complete String Quartets survey by the Alma Quartets. The disc contains the First Quartet (composed in 1923) and the Piano Quintet (1921). Music from Vienna raging Twenties in flawless performances by one of today leading string quartets. Ideal match between Alma Quartet and a specialist pianist as Severin von Eckardstein. Ritmo (SP) on first volume (CC 72869): The recording offered by Alma Quartet is the best available of these works for its understanding of the expressive world of Korngold; is perfect intonation and reading of these difficult works.

This is a remastering of a concert given by the Gerhard Quartet at the Fundación Juan March on 6 June 2023. It features the world premiere recordings of String Quartets Nos. 6 and 7bis by Conrado del Campo (1878-1953); one of the most original but least well-known Spanish composers of the first half of the twentieth century. The concert was part of the Proyecto Conrado; whose remit involves progamming the first complete cycle of his thirteen string quartets; producing a complete edition of the scores; most of which have never been published; and releasing recordings of the quartets (in various formats). The aim of this ambitious initiative is to rescue a significant body of of works from the undeserved neglect into which they have fallen.

Navona Records is proud to present MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET; the world premiere recording of renowned composer Leonard Bernstein’s long-lost work. Composed by an 18-year-old Bernstein during his studies at Harvard; the piece has been steadfastly shepherded from its re-discovery to this historic release by former Boston Symphony Orchestra Librarian John Perkel; and is performed here by Lucia Lin; Natalie Rose Kress; Danny Kim; and Ronald Feldman. “Movement I” and the newly-discovered “Movement II,” which was found within the U.S Library of Congress; are accompanied here by the seldom-recorded duo piece Elegies for Violin and Viola by composer Aaron Copland; a musical mentor; collaborator; and dear friend of Bernstein’s.

Known more widely as a composer of operas, Franco Alfano also composed a body of chamber music including the three string quartets heard here in world premiere recordings.

String Quartet No. 1 in D major was composed during the First World War between 1914 and 1918. The String Quartet No. 2 in C major In Tre Tempi Collegati, composed in 1925–26, is a smaller scale work than the first, and mostly much more tonal in harmonic structure. The String Quartet No. 3 in G minor was written in 1945 and premiered in Rome on 28 November 1947.

The Quartet comprises violinists Elmira Darvarova and Mary Ann Mumm, violist Craig Mumm and cellist Samuel Magill. The same ensemble can also be heard on the acclaimed Naxos album of Alfano’s Violin Sonata and Piano Quintet (8.572753). Alfano's Cello Sonata and Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano can be heard on 8.570928.

REVIEW:

The first two quartets date from a period that reached from the Great War to the mid-1920s. The opening of the String Quartet No. 1 is a Vivacissimo but the word stands feebly in the face of the torrid, angular tumult that is the first movement. An implacably melodious and fluently flowing Calmo was written as a memorial to his son who died while serving in the Italian military. It is followed by a Largo-Allegro Deciso. The first particle of this movement is a short extension of the mood of its predecessor but soon says a dry-eyed farewell with writing that is, at first, long on a tungsten determination. This is clearly relished by these four players. The music ends with a noble determination that seems to speak of a will to hold it together.

The tonality of the String Quartet No. 2 is placed under less stress than the First Quartet although it is by no means facile listening. It feels inventive. The second movement is marked ‘like a children’s song’. It is a delicate Thumbelina dance of a blossom. The final ‘danse villageoise’ accelerates all the way through.

The 1940s dealt blows to Alfano: much of his music was destroyed in the bombing of Turin and his wife died in 1943. It comes as little surprise that the writing of the first movement of the Third Quartet pierces a path into melancholy. Misty-eyed happiness is recalled but clearly it is not to be experienced again. Joy of a sort is grasped in the next movement, tipping over into the melodic complexity of the powerful Allegro finale. Alfano’s final String Quartet had a Rome premiere in 1947.

The CD’s notes could hardly be more needful – and incidentally meeting that need – when the music is otherwise unknown to all but a few. They are by the disc’s cellist, Samuel Magill. The performances are wondrously fervent, hot-house products. The sound is at your throat, heated and upon you with tiger-like ferocity.

-- MusicWeb International (Rob Barnett)

The LSQ celebrates Haydn's ideas with wit and charm as well as brilliance in the expansive solo passages which revive the hype of 1790s Vienna and London. This is Haydn at the height of his creative powers and a quartet to the highest performance standards. The natural, unobtrusive recording technique elevates these Classical masterpieces to their rightful pedestal.

An accomplished and enthusiastic rediscovery of a decisive pioneer of modern Russian music of the Fin de Siècle. The sorrowful, sweet melancholy wistfully nods at the Russia of old.

The music of the Yorkshire-born Arnold Cooke (1906–2005) – solidly constructed, inventively contrapuntal, lyrical and energetic in turns – does not deserve the neglect it suffered even in its composer’s lifetime. This first album, of two presenting all five of Cooke’s string quartets, underlines his reputation for resourceful craftsmanship, presented in a style which sits downstream from Paul Hindemith, with whom he studied in Berlin, and from Béla Bartók.

REVIEW:

Like our Ned Rorem, the English composer Arnold Cooke (1906–2005) nearly lived to see his own centennial. He was a student of Hindemith, and his work has his master’s best traits — has athletic motion, tart harmonies and counterpoints, and excellent construction.

His Quartet 1 (1933) has a fugal opening that becomes thorny, but in a bracing way. Its individual lines have an Ivesian independence. The scherzo has rapid leaping figures; the interlude has longer lines combined in counterpoint. The slow movement has an elegant legato theme, later re-introduced with insistent rhythms that themselves become important. The whirligig finale has a more deliberate relief section before the faster music returns, building to a dramatic climax before it tapers off to a C major conclusion.

In Quartet 3 (1967), the beginning contrasts martial dotted figures with more legato melodies. II makes skilled interplay between arching themes and pizzicato accompaniments. Its counterpoint is tonally wayward, but the overall form is clear owing to Cooke’s control over its pacing. The scherzo has a jiglike theme expanding to hemiolic 2-versus-3 rhythms. In the finale the themes use traditional rhythmic patterns, but with non-tonal lines. A theme in the development even has a Scotch snap. The movement ends on a unison G natural.

Quartet 5 (1978) has 3 continuous movements. It begins with winding lines, then unified gestures. The closely voiced harmonies are done with a master’s touch.

Cooke’s dissonances result from his logical voice-leading, rather than being tacked on to sound “modern”. Thus, listeners willing to do a little mental heavy lifting will find his work fascinating and readily understandable.

— American Record Guide

Between 1934 and 1949, Allan Pettersson, one of Sweden’s foremost composers of symphonies, wrote chamber works that differ greatly from his later production. With his Two Elegies, composed at the tender age of 17, Pettersson drew the enthusiasm of his teacher, who saw in him the makings of a composer. The Four Improvisations for string trio recall Bartók’s music with their rhythmic vitality. The Andante espressivo is more personal with its experimental melodic and harmonic leanings. After his forced return from Paris in 1939, where he had gone to study, Pettersson composed a tender and lyrical Romanza and, three years later, his only piece for solo piano, the elegiac and meditative Lamento.

The most important work on this recording is the Concerto for Violin and String Quartet, a harsh, dense work that places great demands on the musicians. Initially rejected by the critics, the work now appears almost unique in terms of its radical tonal language and experimental use of extended techniques. For this recording, Ulf Wallin has brought together colleagues and friends to perform these lesser-known works, which nevertheless constitute an essential milestone in the career of the great Swedish composer.

REVIEW:

The Concerto for Violin and String Quartet of 1949, which opens the program and makes up over half of the album’s run time, is a lush work with numerous challenges for performers, both technically and harmonically, that from the outside would seem likely to limit the scope of listeners who would enjoy it. However, credit to the present performers, for these demands are met, and the results are thoroughly interesting and thought-provoking. The Concerto is the latest included work, chronologically, and it is a clear step toward the composer’s symphonic writing. The earliest works here are the Two Elegies for Violin and Piano, from 1934. These lovely, short tunes reflect the schooling the composer had undertaken; one could perhaps mistake these as having been written in the previous century.

Pianist Thomas Hoppe, Wallin is another draw. Aside from ideal backing on the violin and piano works, Hoppe delivers a beautiful reading of Pettersson’s Lamento for Solo Piano. There is a lot to take in here, and listeners will be rewarded with subsequent hearings.

-- AllMusic.com (Keith Finke)

Providing an overview of almost a century, this album reflects the aspirations of Polish nationalism through the works of three pivotal figures: Karol Kurpinski, whose Fantasy for String Quartet is both serious and ingenious in design, Zygmunt Noskowski, whose witty piece on a theme of Viotti includes the use of a polacca, and Stanislaw Moniuszko, whose quartets balance the hymnal with the rustic.

These earliest and rare Weinberg (Vainberg) Russian recordings were too early to be reviewed then even if ever issued... "(In 1994), with only 14 months to live, Weinberg celebrated his 75th birthday... he lived just long enough to witness a new wave of interest. A series of CDs began in the 1990s, and his friend Tommy Persson (the Swedish judge who had brought medicines which almost certainly gave the composer a few extra years of life) was able to present Weinberg with (some of) those issues... The broadcaster and documentary maker Per Skans, went straight to the point, describing Weinberg's neglect as 'scandalous'. How gratifying for Persson that his underwriting of several CDs that appeared then not only kept the music alive for specialist collectors but touched off what has been described in Russia as the 'Weinberg boom'. [David Fanning article for Gramophone].

During the 18th century, the string quartet gained the position of the most valued and most challenging chamber music genre, and gradually became a vehicle for conveying the composer’s personal feelings. Joseph Haydn played a key role in forging the quartet’s classical form. He created almost 70 string quartets, which, along with the symphonies, constitute the largest, as well as the most significant, part of his oeuvre. Haydn accorded them the form that would serve as the model for Mozart, Beethoven, and later composers. Just as fascinating as the quantity is his quartets’ sheer diversity, with each of them being singular, featuring novel (often humorous) ideas, experiments, as well as constant seeking of new possibilities of expression.

The three quartets included on the present album chart the development of Haydn’s musical idiom, from Op. 17 (1771), which he wrote at the age of 40, through Op. 33, dubbed “Gli Scherzi” (1781, dedicated to the Grand Duke of Russia Pavel Petrovich, the future Tsar Paul I), to the formally experimental pieces making up Op. 54 (1788). The Bennewitz Quartet have given numerous concerts worldwide, including at the most prestigious venues (Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, concert halls in New York, Seoul, etc.) and such renowned festivals as the Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival and Rheingau Musik Festival. At many of them, they have performed quartets by Haydn, one of their favourite composers, whose music they endow with a transparent sound, revealing their levity and sense for detail. The Bennewitz Quartet – at home with Haydn