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Villa-Lobos: The Complete String Quartets / Cuarteto Latinoamericano

Sono Luminus

$53.99 Nov 13, 2015

Review of an edition previously available of this same release:

These fine performances constitute the only complete cycle currently available of the 17 string quartets that pepper Villa-Lobos' entire career. The suite-like, five-movement No. 1, with its adorable "like a jumping bean" finale, is deceptive. Most of these are resoundingly neo-classical works full of acerbic harmonies and typically busy counterpoint, with few overtly nationalistic elements. Of course they sound just like Villa-Lobos, who was himself something of a "nationalistic element" when you come right down to it. The series reaches its culmination in the large works composed around the time of the Second World War, Nos. 7-11, which really do constitute landmark 20th century contributions to the form on a par with those of Shostakovich and Bartók.

For the most part, this is tough and serious music, and it receives tough and serious performances from the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, whose rhythmic verve and slightly astringent timbre works beautifully in clarifying the dense thicket of the composer's effusive counterpoint. Occasionally the very intensity of both music and performance becomes a bit overbearing, but then no one is suggesting that you listen to 17 quartets in a row. Overall, both the works themselves and these performances remain astonishingly consistent in quality. Sonically you couldn't ask for better. At a bargain price, this is a very attractive proposition for anyone who fancies either the composer or chamber music in general.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Villa-Lobos: The Complete String Quartets / Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Sono Luminus Nov 2015
CD
$53.99

Cherubini: Complete string quartets
Stradivarius Mar 2008
CD
$32.99

N. MIASKOVSKY - COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS 4
NORTHERN FLOWERS Oct 2016
CD
$16.36

Lawrence Rose: String Quartets

Convivium Records

$16.99 Sep 05, 2025

From Haydn in the early 1770s to Ligeti in the late 1960s and beyond, the string quartet has been recognised by composers, performers and audiences alike as the bedrock of the chamber music genre. The format had it's origins in private settings for amateur players who revelled in it's intimate, conversational and witty aesthetic. It progressed into a medium of public concerts for Beethoven's essays in expressive profundity and further contemporary approaches have seen it adapted into almost infinite possibilities. These two works by Lawrence Rose take inspiration from some past musical traditions which he has adapted into new and different guises.

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Lawrence Rose: String Quartets
Convivium Records Sep 2025
CD
$16.99

Presumed Beethoven - The Six String Quartets, Anh. 2

Arcana

$29.99 Jul 03, 2026

In 1927, at the time of the first Beethoven centenary, the celebrated French musicologist Saint-Foix drew attention to an anonymous manuscript collection of six quartets that once belonged to the publisher Domenico (III) Artaria and is today preserved at the Berlin State Library. He conjectured that these pieces could be the very first experiments of a young Beethoven, then still an adolescent, in a genre that he would properly inaugurate when he published his op. 18 set in his early thirties. On the strength of this theory, the collection was included in the Beethoven catalogue, though listed among the works of doubtful attribution, where it has remained awaiting further musicological research. With the world premiere recording of the Six Quartets Anh. 2, the Alla Maniera Italiana Quartet brings back to light a precious collection of chamber music that is still enveloped in mystery, in a historically informed performance based on a close study of the Berlin parts, thereby offering an original contribution to the forthcoming Beethoven bicentenary.

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Presumed Beethoven - The Six String Quartets, Anh. 2
Arcana Jul 2026
CD
$29.99

Mix & Match

STRING QUARTETS NOS. 1-12

TUM RECORDS

$116.52 Jun 17, 2022

(7-CD set) String Quartets Nos. 1-12 focus on Wadada Leo Smith as a composer for strings. Smith began work on his first string quartet in 1965 and has composed string quartets and other works for strings throughout his career. Smith has also featured strings on a number of his other major works, including Ten Freedom Summers in 2011, Occupy The World in 2012 (TUM CD 037-2) and Rosa Parks: Pure Love in 2016/17 (TUM CD 057).String Quartets Nos. 1-12 represent a magnificent addition not only to Smith's own recorded output but also to the literature for modern string quartet music in general. Compositions vary from relatively brief, one-part quartets of highly evocative and at times meditative soundscapes to the groundbreaking "String Quartet No. 11" that fills two discs with it's nine movements. String Quartets Nos. 1-12 were recorded by the RedKoral Quartet. The group was brought together by Smith during his tenure at CalArts and was featured on the recording of Ten Freedom Summers more than a decade ago and again on Rosa Parks: Pure Love as well as on numerous live performances of Smith's string quartets and other works over the past decade. In addition, featured soloists on the recording include harpist Alison Bjorkedal ("String Quartet No. 4"), pianist Anthony Davis ("String Quartet No. 6"), percussionist Lynn Vartan ("String Quartet No. 6"), guitarist Stuart Fox ("String Quartet No. 7") and voice artist Thomas Buckner ("String Quartet No. 8") as well as Wadada Leo Smith himself on trumpet ("String Quartet No. 6" and "String Quartet No. 8").

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STRING QUARTETS NOS. 1-12
TUM RECORDS Jun 2022
CD
$116.52

Hungarian String Quartet: Historical Recordings and Previous
Music and Arts Programs of America Feb 2005
CD
$96.99

Weigl: String Quartets Nos. 7 & 8 / Thomas Christian Ensemble

CPO

$18.99 Jul 03, 2020

Following Karl Weigl’s Cello Concerto, we are now releasing his last two String Quartets, his seventh and eighth such works, which were neither commissioned works nor performed during his lifetime. The premiere of Quartet No. 7 was held at the Austrian Institute in New York in 1956, seven years after the composer’s death, and the Concord Quartet premiered Quartet No. 8 at Lincoln Center in New York only years later, in 1973. Weigl completed his next-to-last quartet in January 1942 and in this work much more clearly than in its successor adheres to the finely felt lyricism generally distinguishing him as a composer. It is a work without »screams« and hardly anything would lead us to suspect that it is not a composition from Weigl’s years in Vienna. The same cannot be said of his eighth and last quartet. Weigl knew how to shock his listeners without needing to seek refuge in unresolved dissonances. And this quartet indeed is shocking. The first movement is blunt and mysterious at one and the same time. With its dotted motif the fugued development section strives toward a coda that in the end modulates from minor to major without prior warning. An agonizing but tender melancholy marks the following movement: only Weigl was able to send waves of gloomy brooding through such gentle pondering. The conclusion has the effect of a lonely, mute scream in the night.

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Weigl: String Quartets Nos. 7 & 8 / Thomas Christian Ensemble
CPO Jul 2020
CD
$18.99

V 15: WELTE MIGNON MYSTERY (MA

TACET Musikproduktion

$23.99 Jan 15, 2010

In previous issues I've praised the Abegg Trio's radiant performances of Beethoven's piano trios. This convenient set of the Mendelssohn's works in this form - two by Felix and one by Fanny, composed the year after her brother's second trio - elicits comparable enthusiasm, thanks to the brilliance of the renditions, individually and collectively... The recorded sound is first-rate therein and throughout the two more familiar scores as well. As previously noted, too, a B�sendorfer Imperial piano, played with some restraint by Gerrit Zitterbart and admirably balanced in this CD, adds a measure of richness not often encountered among other practitioners of the art of piano-trio playing. That said, this Tacet CD sports an attractive lineup as well, and although there are many fine recorded performances of both of Felix's piano trios, these merit inclusion among the very best, due to the Abegg's superior playing, seasoned interpretations, and the splendid recorded sound. High. 4009850008101 TCET81.2 19542409 .00 23.99 .24 TACET RECORDS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 05/01/1999 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/5/2/7/1997250.jpg 0 1 N MOZART / VEREBICS KOMM LIEBER MAI: MOZART LIEDER With bright jubilation, with polished lines and wonderfully formed; elegant and yet with warm expression; the intonation is a clear as a bell; or to put it in a nutshell: Ibolya Verebics sings the Mozart lieder in perfectly natural way and is thus the ideal performer.... She is accompanied discreetly and competently by her fellow Hungarian Csaba Vegve�ri. (Neue Westfe�lische) 4009850001607 TCET16.2 07217395 .00 23.99 .25 TACET RECORDS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CLASSICAL VOCALS 05/23/2000 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/2/6/2/7/1997262.jpg 8 1 N GUARNIERI / NESCHLING / SAO PAULO SO SYMPHONY 1 / ABERTURA FESTIVA / SYMPHONY 4 7318590012901 BIS1290.2 09656277 .00 21.99 .25 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 10/21/2003 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/8/3/3/2263383.jpg 0 1 N SIBELIUS / KUUSISTO / YLONEN / GRASBECK COMPLETE PIANO TRIOS 2 7318590012925 BIS1292.2 10063897 .00 21.99 .24 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 06/29/2004 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/8/3/3/2263385.jpg 0 1 N TAKEMITSU / DUKES / BEZALY / OGAWA / OTAKA STRING AROUND AUTUMN 7318590013007 BIS1300.2 08993250 .00 21.99 .23 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/26/2002 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/9/3/3/2263390.jpg 18 1 N HAYDN 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OGAWA PIANO MUSIC 5 7318590014059 BIS1405.2 15831521 .00 21.99 .22 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 06/28/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/7/4/3/2263471.jpg 5 1 N AMODEI / ZAMBONI / STORAGE / KIRKBY / LINDBERG SU L'ORE CHE L'AURORA 7318590014158 BIS1415.2 09940031 .00 21.99 .22 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 04/27/2004 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/8/4/3/2263481.jpg 6 1 N SCHOENBERG / BERG / PONTINEN CHAMBER MUSIC III 7318590014172 BIS1417.2 11235552 .00 21.99 .24 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 11/29/2005 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/8/4/3/2263483.jpg 3 1 N LINDBERG / SUND / MANDEAL / BASQUE NAT'L ORCH COMPOSER'S PORTRAIT 7318590014288 BIS1428.2 10777688 .00 21.99 .20 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 05/31/2005 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/9/4/3/2263494.jpg 2 1 N BACH / ARNOLD / BOZZA / LINDBERG / LINKOLA FOLIATIONS: STOCKHOLM CHAMBER BRASS 7318590014387 BIS1438.2 14794438 .00 21.99 .24 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 11/24/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/0/5/3/2263504.jpg 9 1 N LOVE BADE ME WELCOME / VARIOUS LOVE BADE ME WELCOME / VARIOUS 7318590014462 BIS1446.2 11238553 .00 21.99 .20 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CLASSICAL VOCALS 11/29/2005 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/1/5/3/2263510.jpg 3 1 N SKALKOTTAS / CATHARIOU / SAMALTANOS 16 MELODIES & PIANO MUSIC 7318590014646 BIS1464.2 10907627 .00 21.99 .24 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CLASSICAL VOCALS 07/26/2005 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/2/5/3/2263528.jpg 3 1 N AHO / TOMASSON / LINDBERG / BEZALY / VANSKA CONCERTOS FOR FLUTE & ORCHESTRA 7318590014998 BIS1499.2 10907719 .00 21.99 .26 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 07/26/2005 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/2/5/5/3/2263552.jpg 3 1 N BRITTEN / EMPORER QUARTET STRING QUARTETS 7318599915401 BIS1540SACD 15167484 .00 21.99 .42 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 07/27/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/8/5/3/2263587.jpg 2 1 N SKALKOTTAS / RAMOU BALLET MUSIC FOR PIANO 7318590015643 BIS1564.2 12107551 .00 21.99 .26 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL BALLET 02/27/2007 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/0/6/3/2263605.jpg 1 1 N DVORAK / TOGNETTI / NORDIC CHAMBER ORCH / LINDBERG VIOLIN CONCERTO 7318590017081 BIS1708.2 15008053 .00 21.99 .23 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 04/27/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/0/7/3/2263709.jpg 9 1 N DOWLAND / PURCELL / KIRKBY / LINDBERG ORPHEUS IN ENGLAND: SONGS & LUTE MUSIC 7318590017258 BIS1725.2 15429681 .00 21.99 .24 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 01/25/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/2/2/7/3/2263722.jpg 1 1 N HEIKKILA / LAHTI SYM ORCH / PERKO SIITA TUNTEE JOULUN: FINNISH CHRISTMAS 7318590017470 BIS1747.2 14154782 .00 21.99 .20 BIS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS / CHANUKKAH 11/25/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/3/7/3/2263735.jpg 15 1 N MATTEI / MOZART / RPO / RENES GREAT BARITONE ARIAS 7318599917498 BIS1749SACD 15699268 .00 21.99 .24 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 04/26/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/3/7/3/2263737.jpg 0 1 N BRAHMS / SWEDISH CHAMBER ORCH / DAUSGAARD SYM 1 IN C MIN OP 68 / LIEBESLIEDER-WALZER OP 52 7318599917566 BIS1756SACD 19855165 .00 21.99 .23 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 01/22/2013 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/4/7/3/2263744.jpg 4 1 N BEETHOVEN / ZIMMERMANN / TAMESTIT / POLTERA STRING TRIOS 7318599918570 BIS1857SACD 16239999 .00 21.99 .24 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 12/13/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/1/8/3/2263815.jpg 4 1 N DVORAK / MPO / FLOR SYMPHONY NO. 7 7318599918969 BIS1896SACD 16547643 .00 21.99 .21 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 04/24/2012 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/4/8/3/2263848.jpg 1 1 N GLIERE / KOMSI / LAHTI SYM ORCH COLORATURA 7318599919621 BIS1962SACD 19357218 .00 21.99 .24 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 10/30/2012 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/6/8/3/2263864.jpg 2 1 N PETTERSSON / NORRKOPING SYM ORCH / LINDBERG SYMPHONY NO 6 7318599919805 BIS1980SACD 19161853 .00 21.99 .25 BIS SUPER-AUDIO CD CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 09/25/2012 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/7/8/3/2263875.jpg 3 1 N LOCKWOOD,FRANCIS / LOCKWOOD,DIDIER BROTHERS Didier and Francis Lockwood have been fixtures of the French jazz scene for thirty years, but their Brothers album, originally recorded for the Ames label in 2008, featured them together for the first time. Francis Lockwood's piano and the violin of his brother Didier function together in perfect alchemy here, the only instruments present on the recording. The result is an intimate, delicate dive into a universe of their own design where their talents, complicity and connivance are shaped by the closeness of their relation as brothers. 3448960259224 FRAS592.2 25892741 .00 20.99 .25 FREMEAUX & ASSOC. FR COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 03/11/2014 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/8/8/6/2276884.jpg 5 1 N MAHLER / HAASS / GRIEG / REINECKE WELTE-MIGNON MYSTERY 15: MAHLER & REINECKE & GRIEG The Steinway used by TACET makes the three composers seem like contemporaries - that's how present and delicate this sound is. It fully meets the highest standards. How wonderful it is the way the grand piabno learns to sing under Mahler's and Reinecke's touch. It is for this reason, above all, that it is worth hearing this recording, even if one already knows the recording of the three composers from other productions: The sound speaks for itself.

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V 15: WELTE MIGNON MYSTERY (MA
TACET Musikproduktion Jan 2010
CD
$23.99

Haydn: Six Quartets, Op. 20 / Daedalus Quartet

Bridge Records

$18.99 Jul 13, 2010

On this specially-priced two-disc set, the Daedalus Quartet performs Haydn's six revolutionary Op. 20 "Sun" quartets. These six quartets, composed in 1772, were among the most influential quartets of their era. Before embarking on his own first (Op. 18) string quartets, Beethoven studied the scores of Haydn's six masterpieces, copying them out and scoring the first quartet for string orchestra.

"The excellent Daedalus Quartet, in residence at Columbia University, opened the season by playing Haydn's Quartet Op. 20, No. 2, one of the six "Sun" Quartets from that opus. The performance was insightful and vibrant. Hearing such an excellent, up-close performance made this Haydn piece seem even more monumental." - Anthony Tommassini, New York Times

"The Sun Quartets [are] so named because of an illustration on the title page of an early edition. This is adventurous explorative music, not at all routine." - Herbert Russcol

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Haydn: Six Quartets, Op. 20 / Daedalus Quartet
Bridge Records Jul 2010
CD
$18.99

SCHUBERT: DEATH & THE MAIDEN STRING QUARTETS N. 4

ERATO

$17.28 Nov 06, 2020

2020 release. "An outstanding album", was Gramophone magazine's verdict on the Arod Quartet's last release, a programme of Schoenberg, Zemlinsky and Webern. Remaining in Vienna, the young French quartet goes back to the time of Schubert. "We wanted to explore several stylistic phases in Schubert's life," they explain. The centrepiece is his gripping Quartet No 14 ('Der Tod und das Madchen'/'Death and the Maiden'), written in the final years of his short life and complemented here by the Quartets No 4 and No 12 ('Quartettsatz').

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SCHUBERT: DEATH & THE MAIDEN STRING QUARTETS N. 4
ERATO Nov 2020
CD
$17.28

Brahms: String Quartets & Quintets / Guarneri Quartet

RCA

$21.99 Sep 01, 2015

"Brahms, a splendid pianist, had a special diffidence regarding chamber music for strings alone. He fussed endlessly with the string quartet medium and said in later years that he had written twenty before producing one good enough to publish – and at that, he published only three. He was forty by the time he allowed the first two to see the light of day, and they had occupied him for some eight years.
Perhaps Beethoven’s shadow, of which he was acutely conscious, loomed too heavily in this area. Brahms felt less hesitant writing for a medium Beethoven had never touched: he turned out two string sextets in his late twenties and early thirties.

All this puts a special focus on the two String Quintets. By the time Brahms wrote them (Op. 88 in 1882 and Op. 111 in 1890) he was at the peak of his powers. Whatever internal dilemmas he had faced had been successfully resolved, and also he had learned that a string quintet with two cellos – so memorably employed by Schubert – was not to his liking. But Brahms was always partial to dark coloring, and it seems natural that he would be strongly drawn to the dark-hued viola quintet."

— Excerpt from the original liner notes from ARC1-4849 by Shirley Fleming

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Brahms: String Quartets & Quintets / Guarneri Quartet
RCA Sep 2015
CD
$21.99

Weinberg: String Quartets, Vol. 6

Chandos

$21.99 Jun 05, 2026

With this sixth volume, the Arcadia Quartet completes it's series of recordings of Weinberg's string quartets. The ensemble comments: 'Although from time to time we encounter music that we have never heard before, rarely is that music something we would listen to or play again. In our times, with our technology of information, it is rather difficult to discover something meaningful and valuable that had been overlooked in the past, but when it does happen it is a really special moment. For us it happened when we first encountered the string quartets of Mieczyslaw Weinberg. We felt instantly captivated by the wonderful music, the deeply inspired melodies, and perfectly shaped structures. The joy of playing his music has only proved equalled by the enthusiastic response of the public every time we present these quartets in concert, so the obvious question arises: "How can it be that we never heard about Weinberg earlier?" His music is like a glow of light surrounded by the darkness of the unknown, and it quickly became a goal of ours to attempt to dilute these shadows. With every recording and every live performance of his music, we intend to shine some light on this wide-ranging, profound phenomenon, which has remained overlooked for so long.'

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Weinberg: String Quartets, Vol. 6
Chandos Jun 2026
CD
$21.99

Mix & Match

Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 4-6 / Chiaroscuro Quartet

BIS

SACD

$21.99 Mar 04, 2022

For a string player, Beethoven’s 16 quartets are of an importance similar to that of his sonatas to a pianist and for every composer of string quartets they remain a benchmark. The Chiaroscuro Quartet have begun 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 after all be measured against those of Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven was clearly determined that the six quartets of the set should present the widest possible overview of his art.

The Chiaroscuros released the first three in 2021 – a disc which was included among the finest new releases of the year in BBC’s Record Review. The present album opens with the only minor-key quartet of the six, No. 4 in C minor, which in the years that followed became Beethoven’s most popular quartet – to his growing irritation as he felt it overshadowed later works. In No. 5 in A major Beethoven follows closely in the footsteps of Mozart: its third movement and finale are in fact modelled on Mozart’s quartet in the same key (K?464), which Beethoven had copied out before he began work on his own quartet. With No.?6 in B flat major it is rather Haydn that we see hovering in the background: for instance his way of making witty capital out of the most elementary material or the rhythmic games in the third movement Scherzo.

REVIEW:

This is the best recording of any Beethoven Quartets I have heard in a long time, not because it is, unusually, a period performance on gut strings and historical bows, or that it is superbly well recorded in surround, but because these players have dared to completely rethink these well-known pieces and turned them into a series of wonderful surprises.

The set has to be heard no matter how many other recordings one possesses. If it goes on to encompass the whole series - and who knows if it will? - it could become the period performance cycle against which others in the future are measured. Recording, in surround and stereo, notes and presentation are immaculate: an object lesson in how such things ought always to be done.

-- MusicWeb International

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Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 4-6 / Chiaroscuro Quartet
BIS Mar 2022
SACD
$21.99

Oistrakh Collection, Vol. 7: String Quartets
Doremi Apr 2000
CD
$20.99

Glazunov: String Quartets, Vol. 5 / Utrecht String Quartet

MDG

$23.99 Feb 01, 2012

GLAZUNOV String Quartets: No. 1; No. 7 • Utrecht Qrt • MDG 603 1736-2 (52: 16)

Contrasting the first and last string quartets of Glazunov on a single release is a good idea. Unlike many such pairings, they literally do represent the beginning and end of his compositional career, a sort of real-life version of Machaut’s Ma fin est mon commencement . And Glazunov, as one of the foremost admirers in his day of the Franco-Flemish School and its antecedents, would have caught the reference.

His String Quartet No. 1 was the composer’s first published work, premiered in 1882, when he was 16. It was first presented at one of the Friday soirées of the wealthy timber merchant Mitrofan Belyayev, where composers and performers met each week to perform and critique each other’s work. The public premiere took place a few months later, and received an ovation similar to Glazunov’s First Symphony. At a time when Russian nationalism was still a subject of intense debate, with few adequate examples in chamber music, this First Quartet conveys technical assurance and a rich sense of style. The opening movement possesses an authority in its inspired materials and detailed, idiomatic writing that would credit a far more experienced composer. The scherzo is competent, but less individualized, as Glazunov wouldn’t start up his series of remarkable essays in this vein until the Second Symphony, four years later. By contrast, the songful, miniature andante is an early cradle song-like example of the striking lyricism and harmonic subtleties the composer would subsequently lavish on many similar movements. The finale is one of those hybrid sonata-rondos based on two folklike themes that Glazunov would use repeatedly to round off his larger multimovement works.

The Seventh String Quartet was completed in 1930, in Paris. It was among Glazunov’s last compositions, and is both considerably more vivid and imaginative than the pallid Sixth of nine years earlier. Its opening movement is unusually rich in imitative textures and contrapuntal procedures, looking back to the Renaissance, as noted above—not for nothing its subtitle, Hommage au passé . Russian nationalism, which had become less pronounced in Glazunov’s later works, reappears as well, though without discarding the chromatically shifting harmonies of his Eighth and unfinished Ninth symphonies. The slow movement, “Le souffle du printemps,” has the character of a lyrical recitative surrounding lighter material that occasionally launches into full-throated, Borodin-like song. The scherzo, labeled “Dans la forêt mystérieuse,” is the last in an amazing series notable for their delicacy, whimsy, and imagination. This one, spun out of short motifs, irregular rhythms, and counterpoint, creates an impression of unpredictable, fast-moving shadows and complex features beneath a transparently simple surface. The finale, “Festival Russe,” is exactly what it says—with celebratory bells, balalaikas strumming, and a chorus singing joyous hymns, as well as brief recollections of earlier movements, handled with panache. Thus Glazunov returned to the inspiration of his musical youth, and for a brief moment successfully recovered it.

This is the final release in the Utrecht String Quartet’s Glazunov series. I’ve previously reviewed its recordings of the Third and Fifth quartets (MDG 603 1236-2), the Sixth Quartet and the Novelettes (MDG 603 1239-2), and the String Quintet and Suite for String Quintet (MDG 603 1238). The features of its work as a group have remained fairly constant: technically expert playing, a sleekly attractive tone, and an internal response to each other and to the music that is only possible when an ensemble has worked a great deal of time on a given work. The approach is cooler, more objectified than the older Shostakovich Quartet recordings of Glazunov from the 1970s (on Olympia; deleted, but still available from some sources) that feature warmer phrasing, a less linear approach to tempo, and more rubato and portamento. Overall, I respond better in this music to the Shostakovich’s approach, which was developed in training under musicians to whom Russian nationalism was as natural as Beethoven and Brahms. But I find much to enjoy in the Utrecht’s balance, textural clarity, and affection for these works.

The group is least successful in the First Quartet’s finale, where in place of the moderato tempo designation it prefers an andante for much of the movement, and in the Seventh Quartet’s andante affectuoso , which goes at a moderato clip and loses much of its charm in the process. These two instances on this disc (and others, in the series) seem of a part with the group’s emotional coolness, a certain reticence to engage the music at a simple emotional level—hence the inability to express effusive enthusiasm and tenderness. Far better is the finale to the Seventh Quartet, also marked moderato , but with more vigor and flexibility, perhaps because the movement is more complex than its counterpart in the First. The soft playing in the Seventh’s scherzo is a treat, and the four-part harmony, though lacking the richness of the Shostakovich performers, has a spaciousness and majesty that contributes much to the opening movements of both works.

The sound is immediate and close, yet without mechanical noises. In short, this is a distinguished recording by the Utrecht String Quartet, and a suitable one on which to end its survey of Glazunov.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

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Glazunov: String Quartets, Vol. 5 / Utrecht String Quartet
MDG Feb 2012
CD
$23.99

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Shostakovich & Beethoven: String Quartets
Avie Records Jan 2012
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Meyer & Shostakovich: DSCH & beyond

Genuin

$20.99 Mar 07, 2025

In their latest GENUIN album, the Eliot Quartett pays homage to one of the 20th century's greatest composers. Shostakovich's String Quartets Nos. 3 and 8 are paired with "Au-dela d'une absence" by Krzysztof Meyer, a poignant tribute from a composer who personally knew the Russian master. The Eliot Quartett, one of the leading ensembles on the international stage, is dedicating itself to an in-depth exploration of Shostakovich's oeuvre in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his passing. Their album, performed with the highest artistry, stands as a powerful testament to this endeavor: playing that is clear, transparent, and yet profoundly intense, bringing both Shostakovich's originals and Meyer's touching and personal homage to life.

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Meyer & Shostakovich: DSCH & beyond
Genuin Mar 2025
CD
$20.99

Op. 18 No. 3 / Op. 59 No. 1
Channel Classics Jan 1994
CD
$20.99

BEETHOVEN AROUND THE WORLD: THE COMPLETE STRING QU

ERATO

$44.49 May 15, 2020

Beethoven's 16 string quartets occupy a place of honor in the chamber repertoire. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, and Quatuor Ebene is recognizing this with an extensive tour, entitled Beethoven Around the World. Over that period the French ensemble will give over 120 concerts in a total of 21 countries on six continents, focusing on complete cycles of the quartets from February 2020. Beethoven Around the World encompasses live recordings for Erato, building a complete cycle, made in seven of the world's great cities: Vienna (at the Konzerthaus); Philadelphia (Kimmel Center); Tokyo (Suntory Hall); Sao Paulo (Sala Sao Paulo); Melbourne (Melbourne Recital Centre); Nairobi, and, with the support of UNESCO, Paris (Philharmonie de Paris).

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BEETHOVEN AROUND THE WORLD: THE COMPLETE STRING QU
ERATO May 2020
CD
$44.49

Howells & Wood: Quartets

SOMM Recordings

$18.99 Nov 29, 2024

SOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce an exciting new album from the London Chamber Ensemble and violinist and director Madeleine Mitchell of premiere recordings of early 20th century English string music by Herbert Howells and his Royal College of Music teacher Charles Wood, including the recently discovered earlier version of "In Gloucestershire", thought lost, alongside two delightful short pieces, Luchinushka and Chosen Tune, newly arranged by Madeleine Mitchell. Herbert Howells first composed a string quartet entitled "In Gloucestershire" in 1916, though the score was immediately lost. He began re-composing the work a few years later before announcing it's completion in 1920. Following early performances and revisions, this version also disappeared. However, in the 1980s it emerged that a set of parts of the original 1920 version had survived, and it is this version, newly constructed and edited by the author of the booklet notes, Jonathan Clinch, and cellist Joseph Spooner who also features on this disc. Howell's Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 28 is also from this same period. The title of No. 2, "Chosen Tune", refers to Chosen Hill, Howell's birthplace near Gloucester, which affords beautiful views of the surrounding countryside where he enjoyed walking. Mitchell first performed these three pieces at the St. Petersburg Festival of British Music in 2009. Having played the Three Pieces... in many countries since 2009, Mitchell arranged two of these, "Chosen Tune" and "Luchinushka" for a quartet program to be given at a Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition in London in January of 2022. The Charles Wood Quartet in D major was his last string quartet and most likely composed during the years of the First World War after the premiere of his Quartet in F major on 7 March 1916. This well crafted work incorporates Irish jigs, folk tunes and laments which reflect both his Irish roots and the growing sense of nationalism celebrating British Music during the period. Woods' music, along with many other early 20th century writers of tonal music, fell out of fashion during the decades that followed, but as this recording shows, SOMM considers the music very well worth re-discovering and plans to record Wood's remaining five numbered quartets in future.

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Howells & Wood: Quartets
SOMM Recordings Nov 2024
CD
$18.99

Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht; String Quartet / Fred Sherry String Quartet And Sextet

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 24, 2013

SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht 1. String Quartet No. 1. Four Canons • Fred Sherry Str Qrt & 1 Sxt • NAXOS 8.557534 (77:33)

Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht is sometimes paired on records with his String Trio, op. 45, an excellent work but one from a much later period, when the composer had already become firmly entrenched in his 12-tone rut. Here, it is very sensibly coupled with the First String Quartet of 1904–05, an excellent work which, though atonal in places, still has many features akin to his late tonal period. Indeed, there is much in the Quartet that, although unmistakably Schoenbergian, might have been influenced to some extent by the experiments of Bartók. I also found it fascinating that both of these early works were premiered by Arnold Rosé’s famous string quartet (obviously with two extra players in the case of Verklärte Nacht ) at the instigation of Gustav Mahler.

One of the features of this First Quartet which is so different from later Schoenberg is its strong rhythmic sense. Yes, there are indeed passages where the rhythm becomes fragmented and even somewhat obscured, but by and large the music is propelled by an almost ferocious forward momentum, quite different from the rhythmically ambiguous and amorphous music of his maturity. The liner notes indicate some of the varied emotions that the composer attributed to the first movement:

(1) a) Revolt, Defiance; b) Longing; c) Rapture.

(2) a) Dejection; Despair; Fear of being engulfed; unaccustomed feelings of love, desire to be wholly absorbed.

   b) Comfort, Relief (She and He).

   c) New outbreak; Dejection, Despair; and

   d) Transition to

(3) Struggle of all the motives with the determination to begin a new life,

   e) Mild disagreement.

Well, that’s quite an emotional gamut to run, and I find it a little strange … well, OK, really strange … that a composer who plunges headlong emotionally into “Revolt, Defiance, Dejection, Despair” ends up the movement with “mild disagreement”! But hey, that was Arnie Schoenberg, a bit of an odd duck to say the least.

The Fred Sherry Quartet plays this music with incredible energy and passionate emotional commitment, which is really the only way to play Schoenberg. I’ve always found it a bit odd that a composer so closely identified with what you would certainly identify as a cerebral reorganization of music (the 12-tone system) was normally a composer of extremely strong emotions in music. There is scarcely a Schoenberg score, with the possible exception of Pierrot Lunaire (which was, after all, a special case and a bit of a one-off), that does not suck the listener into the vortex of extremely strong emotions. I must, however, be honest and say that, to my ears the somewhat jumbled juxtaposition of themes in the last movement left a bad impression on me.

Verklärte Nacht, like the composer’s early orchestral score Pelleas und Melisande, is so well known nowadays—and generally well-liked—that it seems incredible that it should have caused such a scandal when it was first premiered, in 1903. However, as the composer himself admitted, it soon became very successful, and ironically it was used as a club to hit the composer over the head with when his more outré pieces became known. Here the Sherry Quartet is expanded with the addition of second violist Yura Lee and second cellist Michael Nicolas. Their treatment of this score is rather more abrasive, less plush than one hears, for instance, from the Juilliard String Quartet with special guests Walter Trampler and Yo-Yo Ma on Sony Classical, where the late Romantic elements of the score are emphasized. Here, one hears the harshness of some of the dissonances much more clearly because the playing, for the most part, has a very sharp profile with strongly-accented rhythms. It’s so rare to hear an original interpretation of this piece, however, that one listens eagerly to every change of key and color in this performance; the end result is remarkable and rewarding, particularly in the extraordinarily dark colors they are able to produce in it.

The Four Canons are really excellent music, and are hereby recommended to those who feel that Schoenberg completely “abandoned” his earlier compositional style once he turned to the 12-tone system. The CD box insert denotes that they were composed between 1905 and 1949, but that apparently applies to the complete group of 30 Canons from which these were selected; the four given here were all completed during his mature period: Canon XIX in March 1934, Canon XXV in 1938, Canon XXVII in June 1943, and Canon XXVIII in March 1945. The music, despite its modernist harmonic touches, is quite understandable in terms of its construction and development. In other words, it is still rather accessible when compared to such works as Moses und Aron or A Survivor from Warsaw. I really enjoyed these pieces and the Sherry Quartet’s performances of them.

As a final word, I must ask why an album by the Fred Sherry Quartet and Sextet is identified on the packaging as being part of the Robert Craft Collection . I certainly understand Craft’s recent connection with Naxos and appreciate the fact that they have bought and reissued several of his recordings from the 1990s in addition to putting out new ones, but since he didn’t conduct the Sextet in this performance of Verklärte Nacht, why is it part of “his” collection? Why not, more sensibly, The Schoenberg Collection ? Inquiring minds want to know!

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht; String Quartet / Fred Sherry String Quartet And Sextet
Naxos Sep 2013
CD
$19.99

Infinite Voyage / Hannigan, Chamayou, Emerson Quartet

Alpha

$20.99 Sep 08, 2023

The title of this album evokes not only the life-long journey of all these musicians, but also a lasting friendship between soprano Barbara Hannigan and the Emerson String Quartet. One of the greatest string quartets of the last four decades, the Emersons will disband in October 2023.

Barbara and the Emersons were determined to record Schoenberg's Quartet No. 2 since they started performing the work together in 2015. "The sheer sonic scope of this work takes us on a voyage into previously uncharted territory" say the Emerson musicians. "It's like a tall, gnarly tree to climb (all the way to another planet, it seems), yet one with deep and emotional roots", continues Barbara Hannigan. "The soprano’s fin-de-siècle primal scream at the end of the 3rd movement, begging to be relieved of love, is a heavy hitter."

Melancholie is a rare and intimate work by the young Hindemith, "a gem of a piece" that the Canadian soprano has wanted to explore for many years. The fascinating Quartet Op. 3, composed by Berg in 1909 as he was finishing his apprenticeship with Schoenberg, features the quartet on its own. And to round out the album, pianist Bertrand Chamayou joins Barbara and the Emersons for another deeply moving encounter by way of Chausson's heartbreaking Chanson perpétuelle.

REVIEW:

This is the final release from the legendary Emerson String Quartet, disbanding nearly five decades after it was formed as a student group. Here, the group takes on monuments of 20th century music, mostly works that it has never recorded before. There are thorny works by Berg and Schoenberg, each on the edge of atonality; the Second String Quartet No. 2 of Schoenberg dispensing with a key signature altogether in the finale. The last two movements of this work feature a vocalist, and the precise, tense singing of soprano Barbara Hannigan makes a perfect foil for the Emerson. There are some little-known songs for voice and string quartet by the young Paul Hindemith, and a fascinating Chanson perpétuelle of Ernest Chausson, which fits the Infinite Voyage theme of the album even if it may not at first seem to be appropriate musically. All in all, this release will hang in listeners’ minds for a good long time, which is exactly what is desired from a valedictory release. Infinite, indeed.

-- AllMusic.com (James Manheim)

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Infinite Voyage / Hannigan, Chamayou, Emerson Quartet
Alpha Sep 2023
CD
$20.99

Cherubini: String Quartets Vol 1 / Quartetto David

BIS

$21.99 May 01, 1999

Luigi Cherubini was the Napoleon of the music world. Like the "little corporal" (who was, by the way, a great admirer), he was a Frenchified Italian who for years reigned at the helm of the Paris Conservatoire, the most prestigious institution of its kind in Europe, just as Napoleon dominated France. Unlike his less fortunate compatriot, however, Cherubini survived the restoration of the monarchy, living out his 82 years in honor and comfort, becoming one of the first composers to actually write his own Requiem Mass (in our own century, Frank Martin was another). As a composer, his reputation is kept alive solely by the opera Medea, one of Maria Callas' major vehicles, and in the instrumental realm, by his six late string quartets. Fastidiously crafted and supremely musical, these quartets recall Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart in their superior thematic workmanship and classical sense of balance. They've ranked among the best-kept secrets of quartet lovers for years, and only the comparative dearth of recordings has kept them from a wider public. The complete set appeared on Deutsche Grammophon for about 15 minutes several years ago--if you blinked you probably missed it--so kudos to BIS for not only undertaking this worthy project, but also for the determination to keep it in print! The Quartetto David sounds like the best group to come out of Italy since the old Quartetto Italiano, and they do the music proud, playing with sensitivity, taste, and a real singing tone. --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Cherubini: String Quartets Vol 1 / Quartetto David
BIS May 1999
CD
$21.99

Webern / Schoenberg Quartet

Chandos

$21.99 Jun 01, 2003

"The whole disc is a great success. Recording quality is first rate, with the necessary clarity tempered by warmth and just the right amount of resonance. Excellent notes are by Dr. Christopher Hailey. Recommended, even if you still find Webern hard work."

The Schoenberg Quartet continues its traversal of the chamber music of the Second Viennese School (plus certain of their contemporaries) with this very well filled survey of the music of Anton Webern. Having found their Berg disc to be rather cool and under-powered for some of that composer’s overheated textures, it’s good to report a much more satisfying result here.

To have all this music on one single disc makes this excellent value anyway, regardless of quality of performance. There are other good discs of Webern’s chamber music, but none are as comprehensive as this. It gives the listener a virtually complete picture of the composer’s output, from the early Romantic pieces right through to his maturity. The posthumously published works are well worth hearing, even if the composer himself disregarded them and may well have been uneasy about them being included. In fact the longest work on the disc is the String Quartet from 1905 which, at over 17 minutes, is one of the longest pieces in the entire Webern canon! Its lush harmonies and wandering melodic lines clearly indicate an affinity with early Schoenberg (himself still under the spell of Wagner) and one can detect Verklärte Nacht at many turns. But though the tonal centres are clear and the harmony recognisable, there is a hint of things to come, particularly in the way that the main melodic motif’s angular quality signals its serial potential.

The gorgeous little Slow Movement from the same year has many of the same characteristics, and here the use of the turn makes one think directly of Tristan, even if the bitter sweet tonality is entirely Viennese.

The Six Bagatelles of 1911-13 begin to show the sort of thumbprints that Webern became famous for, notably brevity of utterance and an aphoristic style that he was to perfect over the ensuing years. They are beautifully crafted little jewels, where the silence between the notes becomes as important as the notes themselves. The Schoenberg’s seem to understand this perfectly, making sure that weight of attack is crisp and handling of texture and dynamics is clean and clear. Most of these minuscule works last under a minute, so every note has to count.

The experienced pianist Sepp Grotenhuis joins in for a number of other works, the most interesting of which seemed to me to be the Three Little Pieces of 1914, typical Webern. Extreme brevity is again apparent (the pieces are 9, 13 and 10 bars respectively), but he still manages to convey emotion and feeling into his microcosmic world.

The Schoenberg’s utter refinement and feeling for these special textures pay real dividends in the mature Trio and Quartet, possibly the best known pieces (certainly the most oft-recorded) on the disc. The Op.28 Quartet seems to inhabit a more sober world of serialism (it became a calling card for the post-war avant-garde), and the terse, spare movements are riddled with codes and patterns which still make for demanding, concentrated listening. Only in the finale do we get a feeling of longing, of harking back to old Expressionistic tendencies, of something approaching emotion.

The whole disc is a great success. Recording quality is first rate, with the necessary clarity tempered by warmth and just the right amount of resonance. Excellent notes are by Dr. Christopher Hailey. Recommended, even if you still find Webern hard work.

- Tony Haywood, MusicWeb International

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Webern / Schoenberg Quartet
Chandos Jun 2003
CD
$21.99