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Alpha

Schumann: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3 / Elias Quartet

$20.99

Details

Composer
SCHUMANN, ROBERT
Artist
ELIAS QUARTET
Format
CD
Label
Alpha
Released
Feb 23, 2018
Catalog #
Alpha280
UPC
3760014192807

About



The Elias Quartet has already recorded a complete cycle of Beethoven quartets at Wigmore Hall that was extremely well received by the critics. Now Sara Bitlloch, Donald Grant, Martin Saving and Marie Bitlloch present on Alpha an album devoted to Schumann: ‘We have always had a special affection for Robert Schumann’s Third Quartet. It’s one of the first works we played together. Since then we have often come back to it, as if to a splendid and familiar region that we think we know thoroughly, but which yields up new secrets with each visit. The Second Quartet, on the other hand, was a much later and more complicated discovery for us. The writing is so personal, so unidiomatic for the instruments, so full of nuances, that to begin with we found it hard to come up with a unanimous voice for this work. The enthusiasm of the first movement can easily turn into anxiety if you push it a bit too far. In the slow movement, the texture is sometimes so bare that to convey its tenderness you have to sustain it with great fervour. The capricious Scherzo is bristling with rhythmic pitfalls and requires a diabolical mastery of the instruments, while the Finale is an endless explosion of joy!’

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REVIEWS:

The Elias Quartet, whose penetration of Beethoven’s works is second to none, take Schumann’s anxiety fully into account, without in any way trying to make these later works comparable. A pity they couldn’t record all three.

– BBC Music Magazine

It’s not that their performances are so much leisurely as they are elastic. The music breathes in their hands; and even when they stretch a phrase as if to feel its emotional weight, it still sounds natural and right. The A major Quartet is, to my ears, the jewel of the set, and the Elias play it with profound tenderness.

– Gramophone

Tracklist 8 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro vivace 06:30
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro vivace
    Duration
    06:30
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  2. 2 II. Andante, quasi variazioni 09:05
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Andante, quasi variazioni
    Duration
    09:05
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  3. 3 III. Scherzo: Presto 03:15
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Scherzo: Presto
    Duration
    03:15
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  4. 4 IV. Allegro molto vivace 07:17
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Allegro molto vivace
    Duration
    07:17
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  5. 5 I. Andante espressivo - Allegro molto moderato 07:59
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Andante espressivo - Allegro molto moderato
    Duration
    07:59
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  6. 6 II. Assai agitato - Un poco adagio - Tempo risoluto 06:59
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Assai agitato - Un poco adagio - Tempo risoluto
    Duration
    06:59
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  7. 7 III. Adagio molto 09:21
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Adagio molto
    Duration
    09:21
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet
  8. 8 IV. Finale: Allegro molto vivace 07:06
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. Finale: Allegro molto vivace
    Duration
    07:06
    Composer
    Robert Schumann
    Ensemble
    Elias String Quartet