Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Scintilla - Early Italian String Quartets / Butter Quartet
Brilliant Classics

Scintilla - Early Italian String Quartets / Butter Quartet

$7.49
$14.99 Save 50%

Details

Composer
Luigi Boccherini, Felice Giardini, Gaetano Pugnani, Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen
Artist
Anna Jane Lester, Chloe Prendergast, Isabel Franenberg, Evan Buttar
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Jul 19, 2024
Catalog #
BRI97407
UPC
5028421974071

About

An exciting young Dutch-based ensemble, performing on gut strings, brings flair and historically informed style to four little-known examples of repertoire from the dawn of the string quartet. Founded while it's members were students of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Butter Quartet gives vibrant historically-informed performance focusing on Classical-era repertoire. Within it's short history, the Quartet has appeared at several important early-music festivals. At the 2019 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, they were awarded a place in the prestigious EEEMERGING+ professional development scheme for young European ensembles. With this collection of rarely heard 18thcentury quartets from Italy, the Butter Quartet makes a thrilling debut on record. The individuality of each composer is accentuated by their mutual juxtaposition. In their booklet essay for the album, the Quartet members recount combing libraries for early quartets which have been overshadowed by Haydn's mastery of the genre. All of the composers featured in Scintilla were famous violin virtuosi, with the exception of Boccherini who was a cellist. Their work as performers was inseparable from the music they composed. Italian galant music and performers were characterized by gorgeous tone, operatic sensibilities, and elegant ornamentation. An E flat major Quartet by Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798) retains traces of Baroque grammar to it's phrasing, while a C minor Quartet by Boccherini (1743-1805) is marked by the surges of pathos that belong to the key signature as reinterpreted by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Maddalena Sirmen (1745-1818) wrote six quartets of which No.5 in F major is a remarkably close-woven and reflective work, hardly a display piece in the tradition of her teacher Tartini but touched throughout with the spirit of subtle innovation we associate with Haydn. Finally, the C major Quartet of Felice Giardini (1716- 1796) is distinguished by an unusually rich viola part which may arise from the circumstances of it's composition in London, where the composer played his violin with both the painter Thomas Gainsborough and the Prince of Wales, who became King George IV

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 I. Largo sostenuto 03:50
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Largo sostenuto
    Duration
    03:50
    Composer
    Gaetano Pugnani
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  2. 2 II. Allegro assai 08:28
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Allegro assai
    Duration
    08:28
    Composer
    Gaetano Pugnani
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  3. 3 III. Grave 02:14
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Grave
    Duration
    02:14
    Composer
    Gaetano Pugnani
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  4. 4 IV. Minuetto 04:38
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Minuetto
    Duration
    04:38
    Composer
    Gaetano Pugnani
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  5. 5 I. Allegro comodo 05:57
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Allegro comodo
    Duration
    05:57
    Composer
    Luigi Boccherini
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  6. 6 II. Largo 05:51
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Largo
    Duration
    05:51
    Composer
    Luigi Boccherini
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  7. 7 III. Allegro 05:14
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Allegro
    Duration
    05:14
    Composer
    Luigi Boccherini
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  8. 8 I. Larghetto - Allegro - Larghetto 10:04
    Track
    8
    Title
    I. Larghetto - Allegro - Larghetto
    Duration
    10:04
    Composer
    Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  9. 9 II. Minuetto 02:59
    Track
    9
    Title
    II. Minuetto
    Duration
    02:59
    Composer
    Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  10. 10 I. Andante 05:36
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Andante
    Duration
    05:36
    Composer
    Felice Giardini
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  11. 11 II. Adagio 03:45
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    03:45
    Composer
    Felice Giardini
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet
  12. 12 III. Andante 02:22
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Andante
    Duration
    02:22
    Composer
    Felice Giardini
    Ensemble
    Butter Quartet