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Strings

SAVANT

$16.49 Sep 24, 2021

This reissue of Jim Snidero's Strings on Savant Records marks 20 years since the album was to be recorded in New York on 9/11/01, the day of the terrifying attacks on the World Trade Center. Recorded a few months later and released on Milestone, the session ultimately resulted in "a stone masterpiece" (Philadelphia Weekly), "breathtaking achievement" (East Bay Times), 4 stars (Downbeat). Out of print for nearly a decade, Strings has been beautifully remastered and now includes enhanced bass arco parts, adding richness and depth to an all-star string section. Released to wide acclaim, Strings captures some of Snidero's finest writing and playing - not a standards date with a hired gun arranger, but rather a deep dive by Snidero himself into the art of strings arranging, with predominantly his music as the vehicle. In the process, Snidero not only broadened his skill set, but the expressive capacity of his art. Snidero's vibrant compositions, including the three-movement Hudson River homage "River Suite", are brought to life by pianist Renee Rosnes, bassist Paul Gill, drummer Billy Drummond and a supremely qualified cast of string players including Mark Feldman, Laura Seaton, Joyce Hamman, Tomas Ulrich, Mary Wooten, Ralph Farris, Kenji Bunch and others.

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Strings
SAVANT Sep 2021
CD
$16.49

Schubert, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Benjamin Britten, J

Blu-Ray with SACD

$33.99 ~~$44.99~~ Save 25% Mar 31, 2015

Perhaps the greatest single characteristic of Franz Schubert's Rosamunde Quartet (1823) is the elusive, longing and perhaps even tragically unconsummated atmosphere that pervades the entire work. Only in the Andante are we really allowed to relax in it's peaceful serenity. The ambiguity in the title of Maja Ratkje's Tale of Lead and Light (2011) reflects the dread which pervaded Oslo in the summer of 2011, and the life-affirming light of Beethoven's opus 59/1 which inspired Maja's work. It is a tribute to Benjamin Britten's inherent "joie de vivre" that optimism and love triumph in his Second String Quartet (1945), composed just after the 2nd World War. The quartet reaches it's emotional climax in the magnificent Chacony, a passacaglia with no less than 21 variations, inspired by Henry Purcell. Britten's 2nd string quartet received it's premiere on the 21st November 1945, 250 years to the day after Henry Purcell's death. Recording Joseph Haydn's Op. 76 No. 5 on our debut CD in 2008 inspired us to include the complete opus, arguably Haydn's greatest string quartet collection, in our repertoire as soon as possible. The heart of the Emperor Quartet, Opus 76/3 is also the most well known movement, Poco adagio. Haydn composed the psalm that he subsequently used as the theme of this movement after a prolonged stay in England. Something of a celebrity, Haydn mingled with the royals, and his admiration for the British national anthem inspired him to compose a tribute to Emperor Francis II. It was later used first as the Austrian and then as the German national anthem. Haydn used a musical cryptogram of the first line of the Anthem, "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" to create the opening theme of the first movement, using the first letters of each word in the German text. G e f d k/c, are the exact musical notes of the main theme in the Allegro. The simplest ideas are often the best!. Hybrid SACD Pure Audio Blu-ray two-disc-box at the price of one ordinary Blu-ray 5.1 SURROUND STEREO produced in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition 352kHz/24bit) by Lindberg Lyd, Norway The compact disc looks like a normal CD and plays on all standard players and computers.

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Schubert, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Benjamin Britten, J
2L Mar 2015
Blu-Ray with SACD
~~$44.99~~ $33.99

Music in Exile - Chamber Works by Paul Ben-Haim

Chandos

$21.99 Jun 25, 2013

BEN-HAIM Piano Quartet in c, op. 4 1. Two Landscapes for Viola and Piano, op. 27 2. Five Pieces for Piano: Canzonetta (No. 4), op. 34 3. Improvisation and Dance for Violin and Piano, op. 30 4. Clarinet Quintet, op. 31a 5 • 1 Benjamin Bowman (vn); 1,2,5 Steven Dann (va); 1,5 Bryan Epperson (vc); 1 David Louie (pn); 2-4 Dianne Werner (pn); 4,5 Erika Raum (vn); 5 Joaquin Valdepeñas (cl); 5 Marie Bérard (vn) • CHANDOS 10769 (77:05)

Here is a long overdue collection of chamber works by Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (1897–1984). Only the C-Minor Piano Quartet on this disc is noted as a premiere recording, but to the extent that recordings of any of the other pieces heard here exist, they’re few and far between. Among the five works on the disc, only the Improvisation and Dance shows up in the Fanfare Archive, in a 30:6 review of a Hyperion CD containing several violin and piano works by Ben-Haim, performed by Hagai Shaham and Amon Erez. Otherwise I’m not finding any other current listings for the pieces on this disc. Perhaps I just didn’t look hard enough.

Ben-Haim’s bio, briefly, is as follows: He was born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, studied composition under Friedrich Klose (a former Bruckner student), and served as assistant conductor to Hans Knappertsbusch and Bruno Walter. In 1933, Ben-Haim emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine, settled in Tel Aviv, Hebraized his name (which means “son of life,” not “to life,” as it’s sometimes incorrectly translated), and became an Israeli citizen in 1948 when the country declared its independence.

The Piano Quartet, composed in 1921 by the young Frankenburger while still in Munich, is easily described. It’s the next piano quartet Brahms would have written had he lived another 24 years. Everything about the piece—the gestural language, the melodic material, the thematic development, and the piano patterns and figurations—evokes the spirit of Brahms, except for one thing. The harmonic context, with its somewhat more liberal application of dissonance, parallelism, and freer approach to progression, suggests that Ben-Haim had received some exposure to Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and, according to the note, Richard Strauss and Max Reger. Nonetheless, for all its youthful susceptibility to the musical influences that would have been part of Frankenburger’s German world, his Piano Quartet is a masterful and powerful work, at times turbulent and tragic, and at other times meltingly poignant. In three large movements, it’s a big, late romantic work of nearly 30 minutes’ duration. The performance of it by the ARC Ensemble’s players is nothing short of magnificent. But it’s such a compelling work, I can’t imagine it not being taken up by others and becoming part of the standard piano quartet repertoire.

By the time Ben-Haim came to compose the Two Landscapes for viola and piano, respectively titled “The Hills of Judea” and “The Spring,” in 1939, he’d been living in Israel for six years, and his style had already radically changed as a result of adapting to his surroundings and embracing his Jewish culture. We now hear in these two short musical sketches the familiar sounds of nomads in the desert and the exoticisms we tend to associate with the Hebraic melos.

Alone among the pieces on this disc, the Improvisation and Dance , also composed in 1939, is the one that has enjoyed a bit more exposure on disc. As noted above, it was included on Hyperion’s CD (67571), coupled with works by Bloch, and it can be heard in an all-Ben-Haim program of works on a Centaur CD (2766), which also contains the composer’s arrangement of the last movement of his Clarinet Quintet, op. 31a (on this disc) as the Pastorale variée for Clarinet, Harp, and String Orchestra, op. 31b. Ben-Haim dedicated The Improvisation and Dance for Violin and Piano to Zino Francescatti. Whether he ever recorded it or not, I don’t know, but Francescatti did record Ben-Haim’s G-Major Sonata for Solo Violin in 1958, a recording that has circulated on more than one label, but is currently available on an Orfeo CD (711081).

The Improvisation movement is a kind of free-flowing dolente thing, marked Molto rubato , and evoking that image, once again, of a camel caravan wending its way across the desert dunes. The Dance movement, as you’d expect, is an animated, spirited, strongly accented rhythmic piece that sounds like a bunch of riled-up shtetl Klezmerim going after a marauding mob of Bartók’s Rumanian peasants.

In 1944, Ben-Haim composed a set of five piano miniatures, published as Five Pieces for Piano, op. 34. Considering that the timing of the disc is a generous 77 minutes, it’s churlish to complain that Dianne Werner gives us only one of the pieces from the group, No. 4, titled “Canzonetta,” but you can hear the entire set, for free no less, in a number of YouTube performances by half-a-dozen different pianists. The style Ben-Haim adopts for these pieces is best characterized as Impressionistic.

Originally written in 1941, the Clarinet Quintet was revised in 1965, and, as mentioned above, Ben-Haim rescored its last movement, a set of variations, for clarinet, harp, and string orchestra, assigning it the same opus number, but with a “b” appended. Like the Piano Quintet that opens the disc, the Clarinet Quintet is a large three-movement work lasting over 27 minutes, but unlike the much earlier Quartet, the Quintet is in a dissonant, occasionally almost atonal language that’s more difficult to penetrate in just one or two hearings. But the score’s romantic impulses do break through to the surface now and then, reminding us once again of Ben-Haim’s musical roots.

On that subject, there remains some controversy regarding Ben-Haim’s bona fides as an authentic Israeli composer. Not all commentators and critics accept Ben-Haim as either a true Israeli composer or even a particularly significant composer. An in-depth online paper by Ronit Seter in Volume 9 (2011) of Israeli Studies in Musicology Online (biu.ac.il/hu/mu/min-ad/11/Seter-Hirshberg_Ben-Haim.pdf) cites a number of sources that advance the opinion that Ben-Haim, not entirely unlike Ernest Bloch, was essentially a European romantic who colored his works with Hebraic-sounding melodies and harmonies without making a real effort to explore the more modern “art” music of some of his Israeli contemporaries, like Josef Tal, for example. What I read in this, however, is sour grapes. The crux of the criticism seems to me to be not that Ben-Haim wasn’t Jewish or Israeli enough, but that he wasn’t modern enough—that he retained his romantic roots far into the 20th century, resisting the various avant-garde movements, and that he continued to compose music that’s beautiful and deeply moving.

That can certainly be said of the works on this disc. The players that make up the ARC Ensemble give deeply committed performances of every one of them, and Chandos’s usual wide-range and deep sound stage add excellent dimensionality to the recording. Urgently recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Music in Exile - Chamber Works by Paul Ben-Haim
Chandos Jun 2013
CD
$21.99

The RIAS Second Viennese School Project

Audite Musikproduktion

$27.99 Nov 13, 2012

SCHOENBERG Pierrot Lunaire. 1 Chamber Symphony No. 1. 2 Piano Concerto 3. Fantasy for Violin and Piano 4. The Book of the Hanging Gardens. 5 Psalm 130, De Profundius. 6 3 Piano Pieces, Op. 11 7. 6 Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 8. 5 Pieces, Op. 23 9. 2 Pieces, Opp. 33a, 33b 10. String Trio, Op. 45 11. Suite in G for String Orchestra: Movements 1, 2, 4 12. BERG Lyric Suite. 13 4 Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5 14. 7 Early Songs 15. Schliesse mir die Augen beide 16. WEBERN Passacaglia, Op. 1. 17 5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10 18. 4 Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 7 19 & • Suzanne Danco (sop); 5 Magda László (sop); 15 Evelyn Lear (sop); 16 Irmen Burmester (sprechstimme); 1 Hans Bastiaan (vn); 1 André Gertler (vn); 19 Rudolf Kolisch (vn); 4 Erich Röhn (vn); 11 Tibor Varga (vn); 4 Ernst Doberitz (va); 11 Walter Müller (va); 1 Werner Haupt (vc); 1 Arthur Troester (vc); 11 Hans Peter Schmitz (fl); 1 Alfred Bürkner (cl); 1 Heinrich Geuser (cl); 14 Diane Andersen (pn); 19 Klaus Billing (pn); 1,14,20,21 Lothar Broddack (pn); 15 Hans Hilsdorf (pn); 16 Else C. Kraus (pn); 10 Ernst Krenek (pn); 4 Hermann Reutter (pn); 5 Peter Stadlen (pn); 3 Eduard Steuermann (pn); 7-9 Alan Willman (pn); 4 Emil Hammermeister (hrm); 20,21 Végh Quartet; 13 Bastiaan Quartet; 20,21 Günther Arndt, cond; 6 Ferenc Fricsay, cond; 2,12 Bruno Maderna, cond; 18 Arthur Rother, cond; 17 Josef Rufer, cond; 1 Winfried Zillig, cond; 3 RIAS CCh; 6 RIAS SO; 2,3 Berlin RSO; 17,18 Berlin PO 12 • AUDITE 21.412, mono (4 CDs: 299:54 Text and Translation) Live: Berlin 3 2/6/1949; 12 11/28/1949; 4 8/28/1953 (Kolisch)

& J. STRAUSS II 20 Roses from the South (arr. Schoenberg). 21 The Gypsy Baron: Treasure Waltz (arr. Webern)

Having been banned as “degenerate” during the Third Reich, by the end of World War II the experimental work of what is now called the Second Viennese School was, at best, on the fringes of German public perception. The three composers who made up the school as such were dead (Berg in 1935 and Webern in 1945) or self-exiled to the U.S. (Schoenberg). There were few performances of their work in postwar Europe and even fewer commercial recordings. So Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, the editor of new music at the RIAS in occupied West Berlin, and Schoenberg’s conductor-colleague Josef Rufer, sought out musicians—many from the composers’ circle of students and friends—to record and broadcast some of the most important works of these three pivotal modernists. This was more than an act of national contrition for Stuckenschmidt and Rufer. They intended to revive the performing traditions that had been developing in Berlin in the 1920s and ’30s, and cultivate a new generation of performers. They hoped, as well, to create more interest in the listening public through greater familiarity.

Audite’s four-disc The RIAS Second Viennese School Project presents a selection of these RIAS performances recorded between 1949 and 1965. The pieces, written between 1906 and 1950, provide an overview of the arc of the school’s development from the quartal harmonies of Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, to the stricter 12-tone serial techniques of works like the Two Piano Pieces, op. 33a & b, to the still dodecaphonic but increasingly personal works like his Piano Concerto and String Trio. While these works are often collectively written off as austere and unapproachable, the reality revealed here is rather different. Though the uninitiated will still find some of the going rough—there are works by these composers that are still cutting-edge these many decades later—this compilation persuasively argues that wholesale dismissal of the oeuvre of these composers is intellectual laziness. Most of the music here is not all that taxing to ears attuned to music of the last century.

Perhaps the problem in perception is one of interpretive tradition. Performers have tended to fall into two camps: those who take a coolly objective approach, and those—most often not of the composers’ close circle—who treat these pieces as they would any romantic work. This is most tellingly illustrated by the inclusion of two performances of the Fantasy for Violin and Piano , op. 47; one by objectivist Schoenberg disciple (and brother-in-law) Rudolf Kolisch and the other by famed Hungarian violinist Tibor Varga. Prewar, Schoenberg reputedly demanded adherence to the letter of the score, and often seemed to enjoy his reputation for inflexibility and aloof intellectualism. But later, the composer praised a recording of Varga’s more spontaneous take on his violin concerto, concluding that, “I wish to be younger to be able to write more music for you.” It is not hard to imagine that this more subjective interpretation of the Fantasy might have similarly earned the composer’s approval. Release annotator Wolfgang Rathert quotes Schoenberg’s concerns regarding Kolisch’s quest for executional perfection, and Schoenberg/Berg scholar Rudolf Stephan, interviewed for the program notes, states that Vargas distinguished himself in this repertoire “because he approached the piece[s] as a musician.” It takes only a measure of heart to reveal the Mahlerian late-romanticism in many of Schoenberg’s scores, and it is perhaps the lack of this heart in many performances that has stood in the way of acceptance. Indeed, this question of effective interpretation of the works of Schoenberg in particular is central to this release, and is explored at some length in Rathert’s illuminating essay and in the interview.

Schoenberg’s students Berg and Webern are represented as well, though by less than an hour of the former and barely 20 minutes of the latter. Berg’s works have always presented fewer problems to listeners. He has been accepted where Schoenberg has not in part because he wears his romantic inclinations on his sleeve and is never as unbending in his application of serial techniques. Webern was a keener serialist than even his mentor after 1925, but he is represented here by works that predate his adoption of Schoenberg’s more radical innovations.

So, is this then the ideal place for the serious listener wishing to come to terms with the Second Viennese School to begin? Certainly, as a broad sampling in several genres of historical performances of the composers’ compositions, this is quite attractive. The vocal works in particular are represented by outstanding performances. Suzanne Danco’s 1955 recording of Schoenberg’s The Book of the Hanging Gardens has been equaled only by Jan DeGaetani’s more detailed but less opulent reading. Irmen Burmester narrates a strikingly accurate Pierrot lunaire —more so than Schoenberg’s 1940 Columbia recording—which, led by Rufer, is alive to all the paradoxes of the work—art high and low—and the vivid imagery of the text. Evelyn Lear gives flawless performances of Berg’s contrasting settings of Theodor Storm’s Schliesse Mir die Augen Beide , while Hungarian soprano Magda László offers the same composer’s 7 Early Songs with less technical perfection but enormous sensitivity and beauty. The RIAS Chamber Chorus sings a fearless account of the harrowing and technically daunting De Profundis, op. 50b, though later performances—Accentus on Naïve comes to mind—have found more beauty in the severity.

Highlighting the fine chamber work performances included are a warmhearted and ultimately haunting performance of Berg’s Lyric Suite by the Vegh Quartet and an aptly neurotic performance of Schoenberg’s heart-attack-inspired String Trio, op. 45 by Erich Röhn and two other veterans of Furtwängler’s Berlin Philharmonic. Hungarian violinist André Gertler finds real warmth in Webern’s 4 Pieces for Violin and Piano, op.7, and Heinrich Geuser plays the 4 Pieces for Clarinet and Piano with uncommon tenderness. The two Strauss transcriptions are as charmingly done as those of the Boston Chamber Players (DG): high praise indeed.

I am less convinced, however, that Eduard Steuermann is an ideal guide for the piano works (but see contra Fanfare 34:4) though given his scrupulous approach, the playing is irreproachable. Peter Hill (Naxos) brings more color, Viennese grace, and a romantic sensibility, and the charismatic Mitsuko Uchida (Philips) offers a wonderful sense of mystery and atmosphere. Uchida brings similar qualities to the piano concerto, where she and Pierre Boulez find more of Schoenberg’s war-weariness than Peter Stadlen does. Ultimately though, it is the limitations of Stadlen’s 1949 live recording, with recessed orchestra and the insecurity of the RIAS ensemble at that time, which undermines his as a model. Still, other than a loving but wrong-headed performance of three movements of Schoenberg’s Suite for String Orchestra by the usually perceptive Ferenc Fricsay, the orchestral works fare well in this series. Fricsay redeems himself with a strong performance of the Chamber Symphony No. 1. There is, as well, a Webern Passacaglia, op. 1, conducted by Arthur Rother which emphasizes its Brahmsian longing, and a polished gem of a reading of his Five Pieces, op. 10, led by conductor/dodecaphonic composer Bruno Maderna.

All recordings are monaural, though generally clean and transparent with the slight edginess on the top typical of RIAS master-tape releases from this source. Some of the older tapes show signs of deterioration, but they have been repaired expertly. The earliest recordings exhibit the extreme highlighting of the soloists that was common radio practice then, but this is really only to the detriment of the Schoenberg concerto. The supporting material is brilliantly done, with the aforementioned essay and interview, plus notes on the interpreters and recordings, full recording data, and all sung texts. Collectors who already admire these works will certainly want this set for its historical significance. In the end though, I must answer my question regarding the neophyte more equivocally. Those with a musicological bent will certainly find this set fascinating. Those wishing an inexpensive introduction to the music may wish to start with the superb Robert Craft recordings of Schoenberg and Webern on Naxos in modern sound. In the end, though, this is an essential purchase on many levels and, if I haven’t made it clear already, an addition to the discography of the Second Viennese School of immense value.

FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

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The RIAS Second Viennese School Project
Audite Musikproduktion Nov 2012
CD
$27.99

Mendelssohn: Complete String Quartets Vol 3 /Leipzig Quartet
MDG Aug 2003
CD
$23.99

Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 / Chiaroscuro Quartet

BIS

SACD

$15.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 25% Oct 01, 2021

For a string player, Beethoven’s 16 quartets are of an importance similar to that of his sonatas to a pianist, or his symphonies to a conductor. As a body they form the culmination of all the chamber music composed before them, and to this day they remain a benchmark for every composer of string quartets. The Chiaroscuro Quartet begin their cycle of these works at the same place as Beethoven did, with the Op. 18 set which occupied him intensively for the best part of two years (1798 – 1800). The effort he put into these quartets was surely due to the fact that he had much to live up to – they would be measured against those of Haydn and Mozart, who had raised the genre to a supreme vehicle for ‘learned’ taste and subtle, civilized musical discourse. Beethoven was clearly determined that the six Op.?18 quartets should present the widest possible overview of his art. Of the three works included on this first volume, No.?1 in F major is the most imposing in scale and the widest in expressive range. In comparison, the second quartet, in G major, is more urbane and light-hearted, recreating the spirit of an eighteenth-century comedy of manners à la Haydn. The most lyrical of the set is Quartet No.?3 in D major, which despite its numbering was probably the first quartet that Beethoven completed.

REVIEW:

Quartet 3 in D major is the most striking, its first movement all surprises. Surprise 1 is its sense of improvisation, well conveyed by Alina Ibragimova. Surprise 2 is Ibragimova seamlessly introducing a second theme determinedly enjoying life. Surprise 3 is the cello, laying down a backcloth of octave leap then descent in quavers while the upper parts’ third theme comprises a spurting ascent and triumph of hammered crotchets. Surprise 4, all instruments together in a fourth theme of gracious chordal stability. Surprise 5, a crashing call to attention. Surprise 6: the development casts the opening theme in D minor. Surprise 7, a crisis with a surround of writhing quavers and conclusion of ff quavers in triplets by all. Surprise 8, a sudden calm and recapitulation. Surprise 9: the coda, Ibragimova bringing gazing, mystical questioning to that opening theme, the fourth theme response relieving it to return on an even keel, comfortably displayed by second violin and cello and enthusiastically validated by Ibragimova.

In the Andante con moto, the Chiaroscuros demonstrate the idée fixe of an opening theme progressing satisfyingly: just two largely rising sequences followed by two falling ones. The playful second theme is fastidiously pointed by Ibragimova and colleagues in turn. Soon comes an exploration of more sombre, questioning aspects of the first theme in a kind of variation proposed by first violin and cello and cast in pale sunlight, a striking effect from the Chiaroscuros’ gut strings, by first and second violins. Contrasted is the return of the second theme’s playfulness, then a wonderfully rounded, contrapuntally rich ‘variation’ of the first theme In the coda the cello brings a final observation of the shadowy low, and from first violin high, boundaries of the theme.

The third movement is an Allegro stylish dance from the Chiaroscuros, not labelled Minuet, not a Scherzo. It’s full of nuances well caught by the Chiaroscuros: pauses, rests and a sense of searching out the light. The ‘Trio’ in D minor has the second violin initiating running quavers, then the first taking them into upper register, the others treading saturninely the four-note ground bass Bach used in his Partita 2 for solo violin Ciaccona.

The Presto finale is an incisive display of rhythmic displacement, dynamic and textural contrasts, its development climax powerful. It sounds quite like 20th century music for strings. The Chiaroscuros deliver it with taste and polish, their coda both triumphant and carefree. The Dovers go for a lighter approach which, while matched by good contrast of accents and dynamics, doesn’t have the edge and tricksiness of the Chiaroscuros.

Best of the rest? In Quartet 1 in F major, the Adagio slow movement in D minor, marked affettuoso ed appassionato. From Ibragimova’s mournful first violin arioso there’s a vivid sense of exploring as well as experiencing this atmosphere of grief. Light comes with the F major second theme, started by second violin and sweetened by the first, a meditation extended by the viola, second and first violin in sustained, unhurried and unharried communion by the Chiaroscuros. Pianissimo reflection then moves suddenly to f despair, the Chiaroscuros gaunt and uncompromising, but becalmed by the first violin and viola in turn dwelling on the opening four notes of the first theme, so that also subject to meditation. Come the recapitulation of the first theme, after its first phrase the first violin is assaulted by the second and viola, to which it responds with movingly plaintive eloquence. The second theme return consoles, but D major sunlight is wintrier than F major. In the coda, the first violin takes frenzied flight in hemidemisemiquavers in septuplets, Claire Thirion’s cello staunchly maintains the first theme attacked by both violins. A crashing ff discord climax releases the first violin to muse in pitying empathy.

In Quartet 2 in G major, best is the finale, Allegro molto, quasi-Presto. The Chiaroscuros point well the soft, trim first theme before arrestingly sprightly loud wake-up. Then Thirion’s very loud entry of the theme, grittily delivered while Ibragimova half shrieks an equally determined counter motif, yet soon exchanges this for a delicate second theme, demurely echoed by Emilie Hörnlund’s viola, before a delightful sequence of luxuriant yawns from Ibragimova, before launching into a sylphlike dance. This provokes a bold re-entry of the first theme by second violin and viola with Ibragimova in wildly dazzling descant. The true first theme recapitulation begins quite docile, but Ibragimova decamps in showers of semiquavers. Thereafter the Chiaroscuros memorably keep the texture light, illuminating the contrapuntal ingenuity. The coda has a nicely pointed pp start before a crescendo to the scintillating ff close.

– MusicWeb International (Michael Greenhalgh)

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Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 / Chiaroscuro Quartet
BIS Oct 2021
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $15.99

Gubaidulina: String Quartets 1-3, Trio / Danish Quartet
CPO Jan 1900
CD
$18.99

Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 & Piano Quintet / Gerstein, Hagen Quartet

Myrios Classics

$21.99 Nov 15, 2019

This album marks a milestone in the extensive discography of the Hagen Quartett – myrios classics is honoured to present their first recording of a Brahms string quartet. The quartet op. 67 is paired with Brahms’ piano quintet op. 34. Here, the Hagen Quartett is joined by their regular collaborator, pianist Kirill Gerstein. The unprecedented three-decade career of the Hagen Quartet began in 1981. Its early years, marked by a series of prizes in chamber music competitions and an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon that was to produce around forty-five albums over the following twenty years, enabled the group to work its way through the virtually un- limited quartet repertoire from which the distinctive profile of the Hagens has emerged. Collaborations with artistic personalities such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt and György Kurtág are as important to the Hagen Quartet as its concert appearances with performers including Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Sabine Meyer, Krystian Zimerman, Heinrich Schiff and Jörg Widmann. The group’s concert repertoire and discography feature attractive and intelligently arranged programmes embracing the entire history of the string quartet, from its pre-Haydn beginnings right through to Kurtág. The Hagen Quartet also works closely with composers of its own generation, whether by reviving existing works or by commissioning and premiering new pieces.

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Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 & Piano Quintet / Gerstein, Hagen Quartet
Myrios Classics Nov 2019
CD
$21.99

Korngold: String Quartets Nos. 1, 2 & 3 / Doric String Quartet

Chandos

$21.99 Sep 28, 2010

There's very little competition for this music, which is a shame because these are excellent quartets. It's really very remarkable how Korngold uses timbre to keep the busy textures clear and prevent his often chromatic harmony from turning into sludge. The main competition comes from the Flesch Quartet on ASV, so-so performances spread over two discs because they include the string Sextet as well. In general, the Doric Quartet offers livelier, more colorful, more accurate performances. To give just one example: the score of the Second quartet lists the work's duration at an optimistically fast 18 minutes. Flesch takes 25, while the Doric clocks in at an ideal 21 minutes.

These quartets are quite difficult to play, the first especially, which features frequent changes of tempo, often within a few bars. The Doric players handle all of these with astonishing ease and naturalness. There are a couple of points, as at figure 3 in the Second quartet's first movement, where the group slows down a bit in anticipation of Korngold's marking (his "Un poco più tranquillo" doesn't arrive until seven bars later), but if this is a fault, it's a vanishingly minor one.

Otherwise, you can only applaud the group's tonal richness, immaculate intonation, and a stylishness that never turns tacky (excellent application of portamento). First violinist Alex Redington deserves particular mention for handling his vibrato-less "ohne Ausdruck" moments (figure 7 in the First quartet's first movement, for example) with the right expressive point while never letting his tone turn just plain ugly ("period" performers take note). Violist Simon Tandree also features a particularly attractive timbre in his many solo licks. Korngold asks for many "special effects", including harmonics, col legno, open strings, muting, and lots of pizzicato; all of these are rendered with consistent musicality and are beautifully integrated into the ensemble texture.

Excellent sonics complement this obvious first choice for this music. If you don't know these pieces, you should. There's much more to Korngold than you might think--check out the wonderfully spiky scherzo in the Third quartet for a particularly bracing "fact check" on his theoretically unabashedly late-Romantic style. One final note for score collectors: all three works are available from Schott, the first two quartets in convenient study format, the Third only as a score and parts. An important release for chamber music devotees, and a terrific example of first-rate quartet playing.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Korngold: String Quartets Nos. 1, 2 & 3 / Doric String Quartet
Chandos Sep 2010
CD
$21.99

Joseph Haydn: String Quartets, Vol. 14 Of 14 - Opp. 77, 103, 42

TACET Musikproduktion

Blu-Ray

$26.99 Jan 28, 2014

• The Auryn Quartet perform Haydn's Op.55 quartets Nos. 1-3 (1788). • In its 30-year existence, the Auryn Quartet has not had a single change of personnel. • The Auryn Quartet have been exclusive Tacet recording artists since 2000. • Since 2003 the quartet has maintained a teaching position at the Music Academy in Detmold, Germany, where they are professors for chamber-music.

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Joseph Haydn: String Quartets, Vol. 14 Of 14 - Opp. 77, 103, 42
TACET Musikproduktion Jan 2014
Blu-Ray
$26.99

Schumann: String Quartets, Op. 41 / Doric String Quartet

Chandos

$21.99 Oct 25, 2011

Doric String Quartet
Alex Redington violin
Jonathan Stone violin
Simon Tandree viola
John Myerscough cello
Recorded in:
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, 9-11 February 2011

The three string quartets, Op. 41 make up Schumann’s only published contribution to the genre. They were completed during a period of intense creative activity in 1842. In February, Schumann noted in his diary that he was having ‘continual quartet thoughts’. In April and May, he devoted himself to studying the quartets by Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart; in early June, the first two quartets were completed, and the third followed soon after in July that same year.

Brimming with the canons with which Schumann was so taken, as well as his characteristic turn of melody, these works all display in full the spirit that one would expect from this most romantic of romantic composers.

Schumann arranged for the first, private, performance of the quartets to take place on 13 September 1842, as a present for his wife, Clara, on her twenty-third birthday. Clara, always supportive of her husband’s efforts, praised them as ‘lucid, finely worked, and always in quartet idiom’. The esteemed theorist and composer Moritz Hauptmann said: ‘His [Schumann’s] first, which delighted me immensely, made me marvel at his talent… it is cleverly conceived and held together, and a great deal of it is very beautiful.’

The Doric String Quartet, exclusive Chandos artists are among the most impressive young quartets on the classical music scene today. They regularly perform at major festivals and venues throughout the UK as well as across continental Europe, Asia, and the US.

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Schumann: String Quartets, Op. 41 / Doric String Quartet
Chandos Oct 2011
CD
$21.99

Korngold: String Quartets 1-3, Piano Quintet Op 15 / Sigfridsson, Aron Quartett

CPO

$36.99 Jan 26, 2010

KORNGOLD String Quartets Nos. 1-3; Piano Quintet 1 • Aron Qrt; 1 Henri Sigfridsson • CPO 777 436-2 (2 CDs: 103:24)

“I feel it—and can’t comprehend it—can’t retain it—and yet can’t forget it; and if I grasp it all, I can’t measure it. … No rule would fit it, and yet there was no error in it.”

Hans Sachs’s rumination from the act II “Fliedermonolog” of Die Meistersinger is a perfect summation of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music. At once gay yet wistful, familiar yet elusive, inviting yet unsettling, it aurally distilled all the complex contradictions of fin de siècle Vienna, preserving it for generations to come and carrying it into exile in America after the debacle of World War I. If the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. embody a carefree present moment, the works of Korngold preserve and nurture nostalgic memories of a lost past, ardently clinging and seeking to re-create those, that it might still dwell in them rather than an alien present.

The four works in this set, spanning almost a quarter-century from 1921 to 1945, offer refractions of those memories over a generation. The Piano Quintet and First String Quartet, composed almost simultaneously, present two decidedly different faces. The Quintet acts as if nothing has been lost; it is gay and brilliant, with unabashed romantic ardor emphasized by sweeping runs in the keyboard part. The outer movements are energetic, while the lyrical second movement employs an utterly haunting, gorgeous theme from Korngold’s song “Mond, so gehst du wieder auf” (Moon, Thus Risest Thou Again) from his op. 14 song cycle Lieder der Abschied (Songs of Farewell); once heard, it simply won’t leave one’s head. The First Quartet, by contrast, is more introspective and even melancholic at points; its backwards longing has a certain assertive determination to it. A far greater reliance on chromaticism and freer employment of spicy dissonance give it a constantly edgy, unsettled character, with an antsy, off-kilter Intermezzo and quirky Finale that includes a jaunty, almost Vaughan Williams-like march fragment as a second subject (Korngold inscribed the movement’s opening page with a quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It ).

The Second Quartet dates from the summer of 1933, near the close of a period of several years’ involvement by Korngold with operetta, and just before his first visit to Hollywood. It is a microcosm of melodic and harmonic devices that Korngold would employ so brilliantly in years to come as a composer of film scores. Given Hitler’s recent assumption of power in neighboring Germany, the first, second, and fourth movements would almost seem to be a perverse denial of reality. The opening Allegro epitomizes the skittish music of the Hollywood light romance; the Scherzo is all charming, gently smiling bustle; the Finale is, improbably, a witty, chatty waltz, but one of a decidedly un-Straussian character. All the more surprising, then, is the third-movement Larghetto, beginning with open harmonics like an icy chill (almost hinting at the Second Viennese School), eventually succeeded by a melody of melancholic yearning that seeks to cling to a wistfully remembered but unrecoverable comfort and security.

The Third Quartet dates from 1945, at a juncture in Korngold’s Hollywood exile when, dispirited by academic critical disdain and convinced his film scores were destined for oblivion, he had secretly decided to turn back to composition in more “serious” genres. Dedicated to a longtime friend and near neighbor in exile, the conductor Bruno Walter, it shows Korngold adopting a leaner, more astringent melodic and harmonic language. The melodic material is more fragmentary and questioning; the dissonances more frequent and unresolved. The scherzo has a jittery, almost neurotic character to its outer sections, as short, choppy interjections repeatedly disrupt an incipient moto perpetuo , from which a brief lyrical interlude provides only momentary relief. The slow movement bespeaks stifled grief and haunting bitterness over shattered hopes, with searing pain expressed by violins playing in the higher register as the viola and cello grind out clashing chords below. Only the finale, with its Stravinskian flavor and vigorously offbeat cascades of 16th notes, offers a somewhat hesitantly upbeat finale.

The only other complete set of the quartets is by the Flesch Quartet, originally recorded for ASV and now available on a budget reissue from Brilliant Classics. In Fanfare 23:2 Martin Anderson had high praise for its rendition of the Third Quartet and Sextet (the filler there instead of the Piano Quintet here). If those performances were more competitive, the budget price would tilt a recommendation toward the older set. However, the new cpo set completely outclasses its predecessor at every level, both interpretively and sonically. The Aron Quartet plays with immaculate ensemble and intonation, with far richer tone and irresistible zest and tenderness; the Flesch ensemble is almost lethargic in comparison, with its overall timings averaging almost 15 percent slower. (For example, the respective timings for the First Quartet movements are 7:26, 7:41, 4:42, and 8:07 vs. 8:47, 9: 56, 4:37, and 9:09.) Although its spirit may be willing, the Flesch is relatively weak. Henri Sigfridsson is a perfect teammate for the Aron players in the Quintet, which is likewise far ahead of rival versions such as the uninspired Marco Polo recording. The recorded sound is exemplary in every way. One complaint: This is shockingly short timing for a two-CD set. There is no reason that all three quartets could not have been put on a single CD, and another work such as the Piano Quartet included on the second disc. Nevertheless, this album is a stellar contribution to the ongoing and much needed Korngold renaissance, and is urgently recommended for all devotees of that once unjustly maligned but now belatedly appreciated master of late Romanticism.

FANFARE: James A. Altena

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Korngold: String Quartets 1-3, Piano Quintet Op 15 / Sigfridsson, Aron Quartett
CPO Jan 2010
CD
$36.99

Beethoven: The Late String Quartets Op 127 & 131 / Brentano String Quartet

Aeon

$20.99 Oct 11, 2011

Founded in 1992, the New York-based Brentano Quartet is known for its interpretations combining perfect technique and matchless musicality. Those qualities are even more obvious in this series of late Beethoven quartets with this first volume bringing together the Op. 127 and 131. This pure crystal of intelligence and brilliance will doubtless constitute a milestone.

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Beethoven: The Late String Quartets Op 127 & 131 / Brentano String Quartet
Aeon Oct 2011
CD
$20.99

Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 4

Audite Musikproduktion

SACD

$21.99 May 12, 2015

The Quartetto di Cremona have chosen for their fourth volume of the Beethoven complete string quartet cycle two works forming a portal within the quartet writing of this composer and Vienna transplant. Beethoven opened his Op. 18 set with the Quartet in F (1798/99), written at the behest of his patron and friend, Prince Lobkowicz. Even within the framework of the traditional form, Beethoven's first published quartet achieved a maximum of moods and stylistic variety. Beethoven's Quartet Op. 131 in c (1826), generally perceived as a peak within his chamber music, is entirely different, much more eccentric and "experimental". Seven sections of diverse tone and character are played without breaks in-between; a brooding fugue stands alongside a sensitive adagio, a folk tune presto is next to a restless finale. Internationally renowned for their "extremely mature and lyrical sound" (Strad), the Quartetto di Cremona grace the stages of the most prestigious venues. Their dedication to their craft is on consistent show through their music-making.

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Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 4
Audite Musikproduktion May 2015
SACD
$21.99

Berg: Complete String Quartets; Webern: 3 Pieces

MDG

$23.99 Sep 01, 2000

Ninety-one years and a turn of century later, Alban Berg's String Quartet Op. 3 no longer shocks as it once did, but rather sounds more and more like an accessible piece of finely wrought chamber music. That's not to say it contains stretches of "Hum-um-umable melody" (to quote Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along), but with careful and repeated listening the ear discerns motifs and harmonic patterns where formerly there seemed naught but noise. Such revelations are greatly aided by the Leipzig String Quartet's generously romantic approach both to this and to the Lyric Suite. Its warm legato and passionate phrasing humanize and romanticize Berg's highly personal masterpieces, both created in connection with love affairs. This is in marked contrast to the Galimir Quartet's strident and angular performances on Vanguard, which place Berg more firmly in the epoch of the Second Viennese School. But the Leipzigers are capable of much fierce energy too, especially in the more explosive moments of the Lyric Suite, which they play with fearless alacrity.

The disc also includes Webern's brief (even for him) Three Pieces for String Quartet, featuring the ethereal singing of Christiane Oelze in the second piece, a setting of one of the composer's poems. At two minutes and ten seconds, it's over before you realize it, but even the much longer Berg works have this effect, thanks to the stunning Leipzig Quartet performances, recorded in top-drawer sound by MDG.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

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Berg: Complete String Quartets; Webern: 3 Pieces
MDG Sep 2000
CD
$23.99

FOR 3 STRINGS & ORCHESTRA
Jazz Music Today Jan 2004
CD
$20.99

Beethoven: Complete String Quartets / Dover Quartet

Cedille

$35.99 Dec 08, 2023

Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet’s critically acclaimed traversal of Beethoven’s Complete String Quartets is now available as a specially priced 8-disc boxed set (price of 3 CDs), releasing December 8.

“It’s hard to imagine a group better suited to recording these works than the Dover Quartet,” wrote New York’s WQXR of the Vol. 1 Op. 18 quartets, often cited as the epitome of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart, while foreshadowing Beethoven’s future innovation. “Beethoven would find it hard to believe that his quartets could be played with such perfection of execution, such beauty of tone, such nuance of expression, and such keen understanding of his music’s meaning and intent” (Fanfare).

Vol. 2, the Dover Quartet delivered “the most profoundly penetrating performances of Beethoven’s middle string quartets” (Fanfare), including the three Op. 59 “Razumovsky” Quartets, infused with Russian folk tunes; the graceful “Harp,” Op. 74, named for its plucked string figures; and the intense Op. 95 “Serioso,” a forward-looking experiment that Beethoven originally intended “for a small circle of connoisseurs.” Only Strings said, “The Dover performances sparkle and thrill. Their virtuosity is immediately apparent.”

Comprising Beethoven’s very last compositions — the five monumental, revolutionary Late Quartets and imposing Grosse Fuge — Vol. 3 “culminates their excellent recordings of all of Beethoven’s string quartets” (Third Coast Review). Remarkable and often daunting works that upended the concept of the string quartet, they are often considered the ultimate expression of Beethoven’s artistry. “This is a monumental achievement by one of the best string quartets playing today” (Classical CD Reviews).

The Dover Quartet has followed a “practically meteoric” (Strings) trajectory to become one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world since sweeping all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. In addition to serving as the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Dover Quartet holds residencies with the Kennedy Center, Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University (it’s longest residency, dating back to 2015), Artosphere, and Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

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Beethoven: Complete String Quartets / Dover Quartet
Cedille Dec 2023
CD
$35.99

Friedrich Ernst Fesca: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1

CPO

$53.99 Oct 29, 2013

F. E. FESCA String Quartets: No. 1 in E?, op. 1/1; No. 2 in F?, op. 1/2; No. 3 in B?, op. 1/3; No. 7 in a, op. 3/1; No. 8 in D, op. 3/2; No. 9 in E?, op. 3/3; No. 13 in d, op. 12; No, 15 in D, op. 34. Potpourri No. 2 B? for String Quartet, op. 11 • Diogenes Qrt • CPO 777482 (3 CDs: 207:02)

Reviewing a release (CPO 999869) of two symphonies by Friedrich Ernst Fesca in Fanfare 31:6, Patrick Rucker described him as a “symphonist,” and came to the conclusion that “though it’s doubtful that anyone would argue for an elevation of Fesca’s status above that of a Kleinemeister , this is music of considerable skill and charm.” I think something important wasn’t stated, there—namely, that Fesca wasn’t a symphonist. He was a concertmaster and first violinist by profession in court orchestras and chapels, but his compositional métier was chamber music, and especially the string quartet. As compared to the three symphonies he wrote very early in a highly successful career cut short by tuberculosis, he composed a total of 16 string quartets, not to mention four string quintets, four flute quartets, and a Flute Quintet.

And it was as a composer of string quartets that Carl Maria von Weber praised him in a published article in 1818. He notes that Fesca’s models were Mozart and Haydn, that he is “careful and richly spices” his harmonies, and “often modulates sharply, and swiftly, almost like Beethoven,” which is both shrewd and wide of the mark: both Beethoven and Fesca learned this from Haydn, and beyond Haydn, likely back to the more exploratory quartets of Gossec. Unlike Beethoven, he “feels too soft to … suddenly seize us with a bold, gigantic fist,” but “a certain intelligent deliberation marks his works, and is coupled with depth of feeling, avoids dryness, and brings about an uncommonly fine bearing in the character both of the whole and of the individual parts. He develops his ideas clearly and manifoldly, the four voices are independent.…” Weber notes a tendency towards what we term the quatuor brilliant , with a flashy first violin part, but that the other instruments aren’t demoted to secondary roles.

This first volume in a projected series of Fesca’s string quartets in general confirms Weber’s comments. I find little mature Mozart in the mix. On the other hand, Haydn appears less in the shape of harmonies and themes than in distant modulations, a tendency towards regular motivic transformation, and subtle elements held in common among all four movements of each work. Fesca also has the interesting trick (for lack of a better term) of crafting beautiful galant themes that he tags, either midway or at their conclusion, with short motifs. These latter can be varied and developed at will, as well as making a perfect way to bridge back to the themes, themselves, usually with several transformed elements.

Even the earliest works, believed to date from before or around his 20th year, demonstrate a mastery at handling what were by then the quartet’s movement structures that would remain in place for over a century. There is also at times a sense of playfulness at work—figures reversed, details that suddenly loom out of proportion, bridges that don’t end up where they traditionally should, thematic content from one movement inserted slyly into the accompaniment of another, etc.—though it almost never takes the form of Haydn’s famous false endings. Weber’s comment about four independent voices is only accurate in a limited sense. True, Fesca is willing to give the lead voice at any time to any of his instruments, but his greatest fault (at least, to modern ears) is a willingness at times to fall back on a lead with simple, repetitive bass accompaniment. That, too, was very characteristic of French quartets from the mid-18th through early 19th centuries.

What Weber in turn considers with typically Romantic regard for the individual as personally expressive reticence was probably just a pragmatic matter of writing for the largest audience without compromising standards; for make no mistake, Fesca was extremely popular during his lifetime. (His quartets continued to go through multiple editions after his death and through to the mid-century.) The one stylistic kicker in this three-disc set is the String Quartet No. 13 of 1819. It stands out from the rest both for its concentration on motivic transformation, even in the central movements, and for its tonal instability. Fesca as a rule enjoys exploring distant keys and recasting thematic content with different leads and slightly altered harmonies, but here he deliberately undercuts notions of the tonic not merely in bridges but within the themes themselves, leading to several moments of precarious tonality during the opening movement. Chromatic passages abound. It’s not later Schubert, by any means, but it is a curious sidelight that indicates one direction the composer might have pursued had he lived longer.

The Diogenes Quartet is a new name for me. They are all technically proficient if not expert, but slurs in some faster passagework commendably don’t cause them to take movements marked as presto or vivace any slower. Their tone is commendably lean, and their application of vibrato on held notes, and at cadences, warm. Founded in 1998, they apparently keep to a busy concert and recording schedule. (Their first volume of the Schubert quartets has recently been released on Brilliant Classics.) I’m glad to see that none of this has meant any less attention given to this music, and they perform it with the kind of loving detail one would expect to hear in works by the Bigger Names. They make an eloquent case for this music, and for the volumes that will follow.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

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Friedrich Ernst Fesca: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1
CPO Oct 2013
CD
$53.99

Anton Reicha: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2 / Kreutzer String Quartet

Toccata

$20.99 Mar 25, 2014

The Czech-born composer Anton Reicha (1770–1836) was an exact contemporary of Beethoven, and his close friend from their mid-teens. The music of each man demonstrates an awareness of what the other was doing: they showed each other their compositions-in-progress. But although Reicha was closely associated with one of the best-known names in western culture, his own music has been grievously neglected: only his woodwind quintets have achieved any currency. Of his vast cycle of almost forty string quartets just one had been recorded before – an omission this ambitious project intends to put right, thereby revealing one of the most inventive and engaging spirits in classical music. - Toccata Classics

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Anton Reicha: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2 / Kreutzer String Quartet
Toccata Mar 2014
CD
$20.99

Beethoven: String Quartets Op 127 & 132 / Leipzig Quartet
MDG Jan 2002
CD
$23.99

Auryn's Haydn: Op. 64 / String Quartets, Vol. 10 Of 14

TACET Musikproduktion

$23.99 Oct 14, 2010

Composer: Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

Performers:
Matthias Lingenfelder, violin
Jens Oppermann, violin
Stewart Eaton, viola
Andreas Arndt, violoncello

Track Listing:

Disc One:

String quartet op. 64 no. 1, Hob. III:65 in C major
1. Allegro moderato
2. Menuet. Allegretto ma non troppo - Trio
3. Allegretto scherzando
4. Finale. Presto

String quartet op. 64 no. 2, Hob. III:68 in B minor
5. Allegro spiritoso
6. Adagio ma non troppo
7. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
8. Finale. Presto

String quartet op. 64 no. 3, Hob. III:67 in B flat major
9. Vivace assai
10. Adagio
11. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
12. Finale. Allegro con spirito

Disc Two:

String quartet op. 64 no. 4, Hob. III:66 in G major
1. Allgro con brio
2. Menuett. Allegretto - Trio
3. Adagio. Cantabile e sostenuto
4. Finale. Presto

String quartet op. 64 no. 5, Hob. III:63 in D major
5. Allegro moderato
6. Adagio. Cantabile
7. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
8. Finale. Vivace

String quartet op. 64 no. 6, Hob. III:64 in E flat major
9. Allegro
10. Andante
11. Menuet. Allegretto - Trio
12. Finale. Presto

Timing: 139.48

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Auryn's Haydn: Op. 64 / String Quartets, Vol. 10 Of 14
TACET Musikproduktion Oct 2010
CD
$23.99

Haydn: Strings Quartets Op. 20 / Quatuor Festetics
Arcana May 2009
CD
$20.99

Boccherini: String Quartets Opp 32 & 39 / Borciani Quartet

Naxos

$19.99 Oct 01, 2001

There's always room in the catalog for enterprising budget-priced performances like these. The string quartets of Luigi Boccherini, though perhaps not as historically significant as his quintets, are engaging and under-valued pieces. If you want to try out a representative selection at minimal cost, you'll find this Naxos disc nicely fits the bill. The Borciani Quartet was formed in 1984 and named after the group's teacher, Paolo Borciani, who was the founding leader of Quartetto Italiano. In these performances the Borcianis successfully emulate the famous clarity and refinement of their models, providing assured, imaginative readings of the first two quartets from Boccherini's Op. 32 set--the best known and most frequently performed of the Boccherini quartets. All six were recorded on period instruments by the Esterházy Quartet for Teldec in 1976. That fine survey had the advantage of completeness, and the lighter instrumental textures brought pleasing clarity and immediacy. However, the Borcianis' well-prepared and naturally spontaneous accounts are equally well played, and the Naxos sound is certainly superior. Better still is the Borciani Quartet's splendid reading of the more substantial A major work, a polished and cultured performance made more compelling by energetically pointed rhythms and marked dynamic contrasts, which listeners will best appreciate during the lyrically expressive slow movement. An excellent disc all round. --Michael Jameson, ClassicsToday.com

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Boccherini: String Quartets Opp 32 & 39 / Borciani Quartet
Naxos Oct 2001
CD
$19.99

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf: String Quartets

CPO

$18.99 Aug 14, 2015

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-92) developed into a central figure in Weimar’s music world after 1760. Among the chamber genres Wolf devoted himself extensively to was the string quartet, or quartet for four stringed instruments, which for him referred to the older Northern and Central German quadro, a trio sonata with an additional melody part set contrapuntally in trio against a basso continuo. The three quartets, Op. 3, form the genuine high point in Wolf’s quartet oeuvre. His predilection for contrast and his compositional techniques lend these compositions their special appeal.

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Ernst Wilhelm Wolf: String Quartets
CPO Aug 2015
CD
$18.99

Homage - Mozart: The Haydn Quartets / Alexander String Quartet

Foghorn Classics

$37.99 Jan 01, 2004

Immaculate professionalism … huge and telling ensemble experience, instrumental mastery practically faultless … Classical elegance and textural clarity.

This triple-CD set was originally published in 2004, but has recently been reissued, presumably to coincide with the Alexander String Quartet's newest CD, a not altogether inspiring collection of not altogether inspired arrangements of music by George Gerswhin and Jerome Kern.

The ASQ cannot go wrong with Mozart, though, and they do not. This is Mozart arguably at his finest in six works of sparkling imagination, style and technique, inspired by the six Quartets op.33 with which Haydn had recently opened new musical doors. Three years separate the first and last, an indication that Mozart spent a for him unusually long time working on them, a fact he confirmed in his dedication to Haydn when they were published in 1785.

In the last few years the ASQ have made many recordings for Foghorn Classics - to date there have been some 15 releases, including several double- or triple-discs. Their most important recordings have been the complete Quartets both of Beethoven, twice - with the current line-up for Foghorn on CD-2005 and with three-quarters the same ensemble in the Nineties for Arte Nova Classics - and of Shostakovich, on Foghorn again (CD-1988, CD-1991). Needless to say, each cycle met with considerable acclaim.

Individually, Mozart's 'Haydn' Quartets have been recorded countless times by every string quartet worth its salt. More importantly, there have also been numerous cycles of the six together, with or without additional works, and some of these are indisputably better deals than this Foghorn, which is dear by any standards - the equivalent, in fact, of three full-price singles. To cite merely top-rankers: the Alban Berg Quartet (7 CDs, EMI 5855812; alternatively, 4 CDs on Teldec 995495), the Emerson Quartet (3 CDs, DG 431797), the Melos Quartet (3 CDs, DG 415870), the Hagen Quartet (3 CDs, DG 471024 or 7 CDs, DG 000649302), the Quatuor Ysaÿe (3 CDs, Decca 473963), the Amadeus Quartet (6 CDs, DG 001408002), the Talich Quartet (7 CDs, La Dolce Vita 100), the Chilingirian Quartet (5 CDs, CRD 5005), the Franz Schubert Quartet (5 CDs, Nimbus NI1778) and the Guarneri Quartet newly reissued on RCA (6 CDs, 1918042). A few of these boxed sets are available at half the Foghorn price or less. On the other hand, the Takács Quartet on Hungaroton (HCD 12983-85) play only the 'Haydn' Quartets at a price that is more eye-watering still than Foghorn's, and for all its brilliance, the Quartetto Italiano boxed set (8 CDs, Philips 416419) will likely be out of most mortals' price range.

Financial differentials aside, all the readings above have their own many strong points, with perceived weaknesses often coming down to aesthetics. The ASQ - who last year celebrated their 30th anniversary - are hard to fault in any regard: their professionalism is immaculate, their ensemble experience huge and telling, their instrument mastery practically faultless. They exhibit a Classical elegance and textural clarity that Haydn would surely have approved of. For those not on a budget, this is a safe purchase that will repay the outlay with hours of repeated pleasure.

Sound quality is very good indeed, as it invariably is at the AAAL: intimate, yet spacious, with all four instruments beautifully defined. The accompanying booklet is excellent - notes by Eric Bromberger provide just the right amount of detail for everyman and expert alike, though in English only.

Rather wantonly, each CD ends with a literal foghorn. These are thankfully on separate tracks!

-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International

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Homage - Mozart: The Haydn Quartets / Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics Jan 2004
CD
$37.99