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Rubbra: String Quartets No 1, 3, 4 / Maggini Quartet

Naxos

$19.99 Feb 22, 2011

Back in my college days my music-loving friends and I would amuse ourselves perusing the letters section of Gramophone magazine, and every so often a desperately worded appeal would turn up, lamenting the "dearth of Rubbra symphony recordings." Now it wasn't as if people were lining up for Rubbra symphonies the way they lined up for the launch of, say, the I-Pod, but if the orchestral works weren't exactly thick on the field, the quartets never even made it to the letters section at all (that I noticed). Perhaps they should have; they are fine, if imperfect works.

Rubbra should have been a "natural" for the quartet medium: a gifted contrapuntist and a composer of great seriousness, even nobility, this would seem to be just his cup of tea. However, as with the symphonies, Rubbra's ability to construct his first movements and adagios effectively (and often quite beautifully here) is compromised by his helplessness with finales. His feeling for music was rhetorical rather than dramatic, and in Quartets Nos. 1 and 3 the last movements (of three) disappoint, with the former's being too short and the latter's too light. In the Fourth quartet, which has only two movements, Rubbra wisely says "the heck with it" and places the adagio last.

The Maggini Quartet has made many excellent recordings of the English quartet repertoire for Naxos, and this one is no exception. They bring plenty of expressive intensity to those heartfelt adagios, and phrase Rubbra's intertwining contrapuntal lines with winning clarity, while avoiding excessive density. The engineering is also very good: unobtrusive and natural. This music is well worth getting to know, even if Rubbra's relentless earnestness sometimes seems to overwhelm his inspiration.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Rubbra: String Quartets No 1, 3, 4 / Maggini Quartet
Naxos Feb 2011
CD
$19.99

Beethoven: String Quartets Opp. 132, 130 & 133 / Tetzlaff Quartett

Ondine

$18.99 Apr 03, 2020

This new album of Beethoven’s late String Quartets by the prestigious Tetzlaff Quartett offers a fitting tribute to Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year. These monumental works which are given fresh interpretations by the quartet are among the greatest achievements in the history of Western art music written by a composer who had already largely lost contact with the world. When writing his final String Quartets (Op. 127–135) Beethoven was quickly becoming increasingly ill and understood that he would never be able to recover fully. Beethoven had just completed his 9th Symphony when he received a commission to write String Quartets. What resulted was a string of totally unique masterpieces highly individual in their language and unusual in their form. String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 is a work in 5 movements with movements Nos. 1, 3, and 5 being the central bearers of meaning. The quartet’s hub and pivot is the middle part of the work, Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lidischen Tonart (Holy Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode). The biographical context of this title is obvious and specifically refers to the severe bout of illness experienced by Beethoven from the middle of April to the beginning of May 1825. The Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 is a work that has fascinated listeners for two centuries. Originally, String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130 and Grosse Fuge Op. 133 were part of one and same work. Beethoven had written the Fuge as the final movement for the String Quartet, but his publisher urged him to write a new ending. For this album, Tetzlaff Quartett performs the String Quartet Op. 130 together with the Grosse Fuge, thus bringing the work back to its original form.

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REVIEW:

The immaculate execution prevailing throughout the Tetzlaff Quartett’s earlier Schubert/Haydn release for Ondine similarly yields top tier Beethoven. Before describing the performances, I should address one characteristic (or quirk, if you will) that crosses that tenuous line between painstaking calibration and micromanagement. It concerns an occasional yet slightly irritating tendency to telegraph Beethoven’s sforzandos with tiny gratuitous dynamic swells. At the same time, the ensemble applies infinite degrees of vibrato with the utmost sophistication and specificity, imparting a stinging intensity to unison passages and delicate contrapuntal interplay in Op. 132’s first movement.

They take the lilting second movement’s “ma non tanto” directive to heart, where minimum vibrato and disembodied tonal qualities transform the Trio section into a folk dance. Here, however, I like the Hagen Quartett’s faster pace and suaver ensemble, plus their unusual rendering of the“L’istesso tempo” over the four alla breve bars, where they create a jolting “four against three” effect. The Tetzlaffs conventionally apply the “L’istesso tempo” to the individual notes in these bars, so that the quarter note equals the quarter note throughout. The great central Adagio is on the cool side, yet the slow and sustained writing couldn’t be more beautifully controlled and modulated. But the fourth movement’s rigid dotted rhythms and arch diminuendos reduce the composer’s joy to cuteness.

Every detail of timbre and bowing seems worked out to the proverbial nines in Op. 130’s first movement, and befits the music’s mercurial nature. At first I felt the second movement’s main theme to be held back and self-aware, yet it provides a contrasting context for the faster and more boisterously rendered second theme to flourish. In the third movement the musicians give distinct points of view to the sustained and detached passages as if they were characters in a drama instead of abstract contrapuntal lines. They glibly toss off the fourth movement, as if embarrassed to dance, yet bring a heartfelt, singing sensibility to the swifter than usual Cavatina.

Instead of Beethoven’s revised finale, the Tetzlaff Quartett presents the composer’s original ending, namely the Grosse Fuge. On one hand, their clipped style and bottomless palette of low-level dynamics transforms the gnarly, combative string writing into something quite lithe, transparent, shimmering, and (dare I say it) fun. Not unlike turning a warty frog into a handsome prince! If you want a Grosse Fuge that scratches and screeches and spews venom on each sforzando hammer blow, look elsewhere. However one ultimately responds to these interpretations, the fact is that Christian Tetzlaff and his colleagues realize their conceptions without the least hindrance, hesitation, or compromise.

– ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

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Beethoven: String Quartets Opp. 132, 130 & 133 / Tetzlaff Quartett
Ondine Apr 2020
CD
$18.99

Haydn: String Quartets Nos. 1-3, Op. 33 / Chiaroscuro Quartet

BIS

SACD

$21.99 May 05, 2023

“Gut strings and classical bows are also the tools of a captivating quest for sonority”, French magazine Diapason recently wrote to describe the Chiaroscuro Quartet. After Op. 20, Joseph Haydn’s first major string quartet cycle, and Op. 76, his last, the internationally renowned ensemble is now embarking on the Quartets Op. 33, dubbed the “Russian Quartets” and dedicated to the Russian Grand Duke Paul, the future Tsar Paul I. Having earned a reputation as eccentric and non-conformist, sometimes downright offensive, Haydn felt the need to write music more in keeping with the public’s lighter, more ‘popular’, less ‘scholarly’ tone, with a livelier sense of rhythm. And while there is comedy in some of the scherzos, it would be wrong to reduce these works to what some dour critics have called ‘comic fooling’.

In Quartet No 1 in B minor, the comedy is cerebral, often disturbing. This is certainly not the case in Quartet No 2 in E flat major, nicknamed “The Joke” because of the sparkling tarantella that concludes it. In Quartet No 3 in C major, “The Bird”, Haydn invites us to a veritable bird concert before concluding brilliantly with its persistent refrain inspired by a wild Slavic folk dance.

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Haydn: String Quartets Nos. 1-3, Op. 33 / Chiaroscuro Quartet
BIS May 2023
SACD
$21.99

The Complete Beethoven String Quartets

Signum Classics

$79.99 Nov 21, 2025

[Their Beethoven performance's] were shockingly deep. I've never heard a quartet so young get so inside this ultimately inscrutable music LA Times The Calidore Quartet return to Signum Classics for the first instalment of their Beethoven Cycle: a 3-volume set of The Late Quartets. Their interpretation is informed by their diverse set of mentors which include Alban Berg, Emerson, Guarneri and yet still uniquely representing the sentiments, aesthetics and research of their generation. Their interpretations of Beethoven are already critically acclaimed with future performances planned at prestigious venues to be announced.

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The Complete Beethoven String Quartets
Signum Classics Nov 2025
CD
$79.99

Shostakovich: Quartets No 3, 14, 15, Quintet / Juilliard Sq

Sony Masterworks

$16.98 Oct 03, 2006

SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartets: No. 3; No. 14; No. 15. Piano Quintet • Juilliard Str Qrt; Yefim Bronfman (pn) • SONY 79018 (2 CDs: 127:38)

Among the releases celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Juilliard String Quartet (of course, none of the original members remain) is this most welcome set of Shostakovich quartets. Welcome because, despite the Juilliard’s longstanding commitment to 20th-century music in general and their having given the American premiere of the 15th Quartet in 1975 (with two of the current members, cellist Joel Krosnick and violist Samuel Rhodes, participating) in particular, this is apparently their first recording of any Shostakovich quartets. (The performance of the Piano Quintet, however, was recorded in 1999 and originally issued along with Bronfman’s account of Shostakovich’s two piano concertos—see Fanfare 23:4.) Most welcome because the quartet brings its usual penetrating insight and commitment to this music.

Truth be told, their account of the Third Quartet didn’t grab me on first hearing. With the rich, resonant, tonally nuanced sound of the Borodin Quartet foremost in my memory, the Juilliards initially seemed lean and distant, and the way they speed through the score came across as unfocused nervous energy (following a moderately paced Allegretto, slower than most, they take three of the four remaining movements significantly faster than the Borodins). But after several rehearings, I came to appreciate the different interpretive details they bring out—such as the jangly Cubist feel they give the first movement’s quasi-fugue and the excitement they obtain by whipping up the tempo in its concluding pages, or the gypsyish quality that their quick phrasing suggests after reference point 55 in the third movement. They may not dig as deep as the Borodins; instead, theirs is a more measured, varied perspective—for example, though lacking the Borodins’ remarkable tension at dramatic points, such as the expressive passage at 108 in the finale, they redeem themselves by deftly emphasizing the dance tune that appears almost immediately thereafter, as if to soften the blow. My ears also gradually adjusted to the recorded sound, so that I came to realize what at first seemed distant was actually more of a natural concert hall ambience and balance than the beefed up (and effective, but enhanced) engineering afforded the Borodins (EMI).

If the Third Quartet benefited from a bit of familiarity to reveal its irony and edginess, the Juilliard’s 14th and 15th Quartets were immediately engaging and convincing—all the more impressive as these are Shostakovich’s two most enigmatic quartets. The 14th is dedicated to Sergei Shirinsky, cellist of the Beethoven Quartet, and here Joel Krosnick makes the most of his featured role. I once wrote in a review that I wouldn’t argue with Royal S. Brown’s assessment of this quartet as “the least appealing, least original, and least successful of the 15” ( Fanfare 12:1), but the Juilliard interpretation has put this music into a new light for me. They fearlessly attack the score’s dissonances, making it sound more tonally ambiguous—and thus simultaneously more original and mysterious—than has any other ensemble in my experience. In their hands, the opening pages sound like a drunken Beethovenian aborted fugue—high spirited but slightly off-kilter—and even the fragmented finale is played with an intensity that makes it sound more coherent than ever before.

In the 15th Quartet as well, notorious for its six introspective Adagio movements, the Juilliards don’t shy away from the music’s bleakness and occasional harshness. They embrace its stark, transparent textures—the waltz in the second movement (ironically titled “Serenade”) isolates individual lines like exposed nerves, and Rhodes’s viola solo opening the “Nocturne” is not pretty, but painfully necessary. Though separated by 35 years, the mood of the opening pages of the final quartet is remarkably similar to that of the second movement fugue in the Piano Quintet, growing from simple motifs into a contrapuntal web of deep emotion until chant-like themes emerge as temporary balm, offered without exaggeration or pathos. Speaking of the Piano Quintet, Bronfman is an ideal partner—a powerful presence in the Richter mold, who can project tenderness or urgency as called for, and whose attitude is perfectly in sync with the Juilliard’s direct, yet dramatic approach.

In sum, these are distinguished, distinctive performances that interpretively fall in between the robust, sometimes exaggerated Russianness of the Borodin or Sorrel style, and the brisk, almost analytical precision of the Fitzwilliam and Emerson accounts. Is it too early to start thinking about this year’s Want List?

FANFARE: Art Lange

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Shostakovich: Quartets No 3, 14, 15, Quintet / Juilliard Sq
Sony Masterworks Oct 2006
CD
$16.98

Korngold: String Quartets 2 & 3 / Alma Quartet [Vinyl]

Challenge Classics

Vinyl

$37.99 Nov 19, 2021

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) was a genius. Naturally he was most widely known and rewarded as one of the founding composers of Hollywood film music, but he is not a particularly well-known composer in the classical music world. His three string quartets are surely masterpieces and can be seen as modern tone poems imbued with beautiful melancholy and Viennese charm. A child prodigy, Korngold wrote some of the most heart-wrenching melodies, which are sure to leave any listener longing for more. His String Quartet No. 2, Op. 26 (1933) was written just before Korngold moved to Hollywood and is full of musical imagery of Vienna, with gestures towards the waltzes of Johan Strauss II as well as the intricate lyricism of Richard Strauss. A fierce anti-serialist, Korngold was determined that it was still possible to stretch the boundaries of tonality without adapting to the 12-tone technique. The String Quartet No. 3, Op. 34 (1945) is full of themes that he used in his film scores and was written when Korngold was suffering from deep depression. The quartet is much darker. Why did we choose to tackle Korngold’s music for this unique project of a direct-to-disc recording on vinyl? The music resonates deeply with us, as it represents the epitome of late romanticism and lyrical expression. We all have a profound love for romantic music and after listening to some recordings of his quartets we knew instantly these were the perfect fit for us. It was definitely a challenge to understand the idiom in Korngold’s writing. Our individual personalities as well as the Alma sound is clearly audible.

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Korngold: String Quartets 2 & 3 / Alma Quartet [Vinyl]
Challenge Classics Nov 2021
Vinyl
$37.99

Shostakovich: String Quartets 3, 4, 7 / Meta4

Haenssler Classic

$20.99 Jun 26, 2012

After a long wait, their new recording is finally here! This time the young Finns give the String Quartets of Shostakovich their attention. The Third Quartet may be considered something like the opposite of the composer's "classical" 9th Symphony - and one of the most beautiful of the cycle. The Fourth Quartet is rather lyrical and densely scored. The Seventh Quartet, undoubtedly a painful and personal work, was composed in memory of Shostakovich's first wife, who died in 1954.

The Finnish string quartet Meta4 has developed in recent years, to become one of the world's top quartets. Founded in 2001, the four musicians won the Shostakovich Competition (Moscow) in 2004, and later, in 2007, the Haydn Competition in Vienna. In the years since, the Meta4 Quartet has maintained a busy concert schedule performing in the great halls and musical centers of Europe. The quartet's repertoire includes works from Haydn to the present day, including many works especially written for them. Their first CD (a program of Haydn's op. 55 Quartets) received wide critical acclaim and several coveted awards including the Prize of the German Record Critics' Award and the 2010 Echo Klassik Award.

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Shostakovich: String Quartets 3, 4, 7 / Meta4
Haenssler Classic Jun 2012
CD
$20.99

Works For 2, 3 And 4 flutes
Kontrapunkt Jan 1990
CD
$22.99

Haydn: Quartets Op 64 No 1-3 / Kodály Quartet
Naxos May 1993
CD
$19.99

Haydn: String Quartets Op 20 "sun" Nos 1-3 / Kodaly Quartet
Naxos Nov 1993
CD
$19.99

Mozart: Flute Quartets / Galway, Tokyo String Quartet

RCA

$17.99 Jun 15, 2007

According to Roger Lustig's well-researched programme notes, Mozart's self-declared dislike for the flute says more about the circumstances surrounding the composition of his works for the instrument than it does about any real hatred for the instrument itself. Furthermore, the performances of the Flute Quartets by James Galway and the Tokyo Quartet, here under review, speak equally eloquently for Mozart's evident care in their composition—this despite Hans Keller's dismissal of them.

The first two quartets, K285 and K285a were written in 1776/7 for the Dutch nobleman Dejean. The playing here is full of Mozartian grace and sensuous melodiousness. At the beginning of the possibly inauthentic C major Quartet, K285b, Galway achieves a delightful liquid quality. The later Quartet, K298 is more substantial and draws playing of haunting intensity from Galway and the Tokyo. The slow tempo of this Quartet's second movement is slower than in the Bennett/Grumiaux version on Philips whose performance has a much more jaunty feel to it. Galway's disc is rounded off with his own arrangement of the Oboe Quartet, K370, whose sumptuous slow movement and elegant finale make this an attractive added bonus. One minor reservation: it is useful to have individual variations separately tracked (K285b.2 and K298.1) but, in the earlier Quartet, there is an annoying click on my disc as the tracks change.

The principal difference between the Galway/ Tokyo and the Bennett/Grumiaux versions reflects the recordings and the circumstances surrounding them. Galway's choice of slower tempos might well have been conditioned, at least in part, by the spacious church acoustic in which it was recorded. The Bennett/Grumiaux was recorded in 1969, but the digital transfer is excellent. These are both fine discs, so choice will be determined by personal taste.'

-- Gramophone [6/1993]

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Mozart: Flute Quartets / Galway, Tokyo String Quartet
RCA Jun 2007
CD
$17.99

Haydn: String Quartets, Vol. 9 - Op. 20 Nos. 1, 3, 5
MDG Nov 2015
CD
$23.99

Beethoven: The Late String Quartets Arranged For String Orchestra / Tonnensen, Camerata Nordica

BIS

$39.99 Feb 25, 2014

Like few other works, Beethoven's late string quartets have gained an almost undisputed standing as the very apex of their genre. Not many of Beethoven's contemporaries would have accorded them this: the composer Louis Spohr called them 'indecipherable, uncorrected horrors' and the quartets were widely regarded as the monstrous products of a madness which at best could be excused by the composer's deafness. One of the first to recognize them for the masterpieces that they are was Franz Schubert, who after having heard a performance of Quartet No.14 in C sharp minor is reported to have said 'After this, what is left for us to write?' Composers after Schubert have been as awestruck by this music, with Stravinsky famously describing the Große Fuge as 'an absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever.' The feeling that Beethoven in these works was giving form to a universal music which transcends genre conventions have also inspired many to adapt various of the quartets for larger forces, including the conductors Dmitri Mitropoulos and Arturo Toscanini. On the present recordings, originally released by the Altara label in 2006, it is the Norwegian violinist Terje Tønnesen's adaptations we hear, performed by himself and his Swedish string ensemble Camerata Nordica. Besides providing the greater dynamic spectrum that a larger ensemble can bring to the music, Tønnesen's main aim has been to strengthen the contrasts between intimate passages and fuller textures by employing solo players in certain passages, as in a concerto grosso. He and Camerata Nordica has also reinstated the Große Fuge in its proper context: that amazing 15 minute monolith was originally intended as the finale of Op.130, but proved indigestible to contemporary audiences and critics - one of whom described it as 'as incomprehensible as Chinese' - and was replaced by an easy-going rondo following a request from Beethoven's publisher.

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Beethoven: The Late String Quartets Arranged For String Orchestra / Tonnensen, Camerata Nordica
BIS Feb 2014
CD
$39.99

Tower: String Quartets Nos. 3-5 & Dumbarton Quintet / Daedalus Quartet, Miami Quartet

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Apr 08, 2016

Widely regarded as one of America’s pre-eminent living composers, Joan Tower, who is also a pianist, is particularly devoted to chamber music. Organic structures underpin her string quartets; there is ‘heat from within’ and radiance of texture in "Incandescent", her third quartet, virtuosic interplay in No. 4, "Angels", and fluid connections in "White Water", her fifth string quartet. Only the third composer – after Stravinsky and Copland – to be commissioned by the Dumbarton Oaks Foundation, Dumbarton Quintet pursues extremes of moods both romantically consonant and dissonant.

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REVIEW:

Premiere recordings of three quartets and a piano quintet, composed over a 10-year span and performed by two outstanding American quartets. The Fifth Quartet has an aquatic feel and flow, the music leading towards an exquisite, radiant end. The Piano Quintet is a characteristically dynamic and angular score, tempered by the piano's warmth and and an intriguing range of combined sounds.

– Gramophone

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Tower: String Quartets Nos. 3-5 & Dumbarton Quintet / Daedalus Quartet, Miami Quartet
Naxos Apr 2016
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

STRING QUARTETS 3 & 15
Globe Records Aug 2002
CD
$18.99

Quayle: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 / Avalon String Quartet

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Dec 07, 2018

Matthew Quayle writes: “I am delighted to share the Avalon Quartet’s powerful rendition of my three string quartets on Naxos. These remarkable musicians display their uncommon insight and interpretive range throughout the album- from the introspective yet ardent journey of the expansive First Quartet, to the spiky mischief of the Second, to the enigmatic meandering through the thirteen fleeting movements of the Third. They have fully captured the stylistic diversity and dramatic intensity of these deeply personal pieces.” Matthew Quayle’s music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles including Albany Symphony Orchestra, Arditti String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. He is active as a pianist and has performed widely as a solo pianist and chamber musician. The Avalon String Quartet, who have recorded the works, were involved in the early performances of all three quartets and they have earned the composer’s strong admiration and imprimatur. The Chicago Tribune described the quartet as “an ensemble that invites you- ears, mind, and spirit- into its music.”

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Quayle: String Quartets Nos. 1-3 / Avalon String Quartet
Naxos Dec 2018
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Klenau, P. Von: String Quartets Nos. 1-3
Dacapo Jazz Sep 2008
CD
$13.99

STRING QUARTETS
MDG Mar 2008
CD
$23.99

String Quartets

CPO

$18.99 Apr 04, 2025

The Schuppanzigh Quartet has been a source of enormous energy in the area of string quartet literature for almost thirty years. Founded by violinist Anton Steck in 1996, the ensemble offers a delightful experience with their intellectually stimulating concert programs and recordings, whose connections to other arts are completely fascinating. So too is their current album with it's snapshots of early 19th century Vienna. Beethoven's unruly and ironic "Quartetto serioso" Op. 95 is paired with a quartet by the French violinist Pierre Rode, for whom the master had written his last violin sonata Op. 96 in 1812. Consequently, this work is also recorded here - not in the original, but in an astonishing quartet version that Beethoven's pupil and friend Ferdinand Ries arranged. And so it sounds almost a bit like Dvorak

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String Quartets
CPO Apr 2025
CD
$18.99

Mozart, W.A.: Salzburg Symphonies Nos. 1-3 / String Quartets
Bella Musica Jan 1995
CD
$10.99

Bazzini: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 / Quartetto Bazzini

Tactus

$21.99 Sep 07, 2018

Antonio Bazzini, violinist and composer, was born in Brescia on 11 March 1818 and died in Milan on 10 February. At the age of eight, he began to study the violin under the guidance of Fausto Camesani (or Camisani); at thirteen, he published his first composition; and at seventeen, he had six symphonies for great orchestra performed at the theatre of Brescia. In 1836, when he was eighteen, he was auditioned by Paganini, who encouraged him to embark on a career as a concert performer. From that time onwards, he was constantly successful. He held concerts in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, England and Belgium. He met many contemporary composers, one of whom was Robert Schumann, who praised him saying: “Since many years no virtuoso has given me such an intimate joy and such pleasant, happy moments as Antonio Bazzini has done. It seems to me that he is too little known, and that, even here, he has not been appreciated as much as he deserves.” The works for string quartet performed by Quartetto Bazzini in this recording are no. 1 without an opus number and no. 3 op. 76. On listening to these two works, we can understand and appreciate Bazzini’s mastery as a composer: the solo parts are skillfully distributed among the string instruments, and we can detect an influence of French and German instrumental music, filtered by his creative genius, which is never predictable or recognisable.

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Bazzini: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 / Quartetto Bazzini
Tactus Sep 2018
CD
$21.99

Leshnoff: Chamber Music / Carpe Diem Quartet, Opus 3 Trio

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 26, 2012

Jonathan Leshnoff is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary American music, and his lyricism is accompanied by vibrant expressive qualities. The String Quartet No. 2 reflects the personal qualities of those who commissioned it with originality and vitality, Leshnoff embracing both mystery and Klezmer-inspired writing. Seven Glances at a Mirage creates shifting perspectives and contrasted sonorities, whilst Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme alternates between hints of Bachian chorales and Bartók-inspired drama. …without a chance is a response to 9/11, where abrupt rhythms are movingly resolved.

REVIEW:

Naxos is simply an amazing company. In its catalog that comprises some 6,000 titles, it evidences an outstanding track record of issuing worthwhile new American music, a prime example of which is found in the CD under review. The efforts of this company hardly are limited to American music though, and seemingly extend to each country with any kind of a tradition of what we call classical music. When I was last in Denmark, for instance, I visited a few CD shops and saw any number of Naxos recordings of Danish composers that I’d never seen in any CD shop in the U.S. So more power to this company, and others such as Bridge, New World, CRI, and Albany that are also doing a fabulous job in recording and promoting contemporary music.

Jonathan Leshnoff, the latest in quite a string of important composers whose music I’ve had the privilege of becoming acquainted with in my work as a Fanfare reviewer, is still young, having been born in 1973. His orchestral music has received numerous performances by major ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony, where he is currently serving as composer-in-residence. In an interview with David Peironnet in Kansas City, Leshnoff stated that he seeks “to bring some centricity to music. I write what I want to hear. A lot of people enjoy my orchestration and harmony. I want to connect with the audience so they enjoy my music, too.” This philosophy, along with his obvious compositional gifts, may explain why he has connected to audiences, critics, and performing musicians alike. His music is saturated with an energy that keeps the auditor on the edge of his seat.

This energy is manifest even in the slow movements of his Second String Quartet that opens the CD. The work was written to a commission from family and friends of a Baltimore couple to help celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. As such, it is filled with personal references to the couple, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Edelman. The gentle first movement includes the use of a theme that Dr. Edelman sings on Sabbath evenings, while the second movement portrays Mrs. Edelman’s warm and caring personality. The very busy and energetic finale captures the doctor’s “very positive attitude towards life.” Seven Glances at a Mirage for violin, clarinet, and piano opens with a dramatic gesture in all three instruments that quickly gives way to a pleading line in the clarinet, accompanied by fluttering and other gentle sonorities in the piano. The piece, composed for the Strata Trio in 2003, is generally based upon a short theme that rises a few steps and quickly falls back again. Its seven movements flow seamlessly from one to the next. The title is explained by the shifting in and out of focus of the theme—indeed the aural equivalent of a mirage. Clever stuff this, and a lot of fun to listen to.

Cosmic Variations on a Haunted Theme is a companion piece to its predecessor on the CD, being composed in the same year, and for another trio, the Opus 3 Trio. Like its discmate, it is assembled from small thematic motives, which are expanded and developed in various ways through its nine variations, all of which draw upon the rich palette of colors available in the piano trio medium. At more than 17 minutes, this is the most substantial work on the CD, although even after a careful listening, I’m not quite sure what makes the theme “haunted.”

The disc closes with one of what must be by now numerous works memorializing the 9/11 tragedy. …Without a chance, dating from 2002, is scored for percussion ensemble and was written for the United States Marine Band. Although the work evidences moments of darkness and tension, it is primarily intended by its composer as a tribute to the human spirit. It evokes the sound of bells and a chant-like theme before giving way to jagged rhythms with interjections from drums. At the end of the work, the tonality of A Major is summoned to lead the work to its dissipation into nothingness. The style of the work is somewhat different from that of the other works herein, but nevertheless recognizable as a work of the same composer, given its energy and rhythmic vitality, and contrasts in mood.

This CD succeeds brilliantly on every level, with committed performances and vivid sonics, both of which enhance the already stunning music. The disc will certainly be a contender for my next Want List.

-- FANFARE: David DeBoor Canfield

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Leshnoff: Chamber Music / Carpe Diem Quartet, Opus 3 Trio
Naxos Jun 2012
CD
$19.99

Paganini: String Quartet No. 3 - Tre duetti concertanti / Falasca, Fiore, Pieranunzi, Leardini, Carlini

CPO

$18.99 Sep 03, 2021

One aspect in the life and work of the great Genoese virtuoso Nicolò Paganini that may be lesser known but in no way should be underestimated is the pronounced interest with which he dedicated himself to chamber music both as an interpreter and as a composer. He was drawn in particular to the genre of the string quartet – and here we are presenting his energetic String Quartet No. 3, a work revealing his brilliant mastery in the field of chamber music. In his Tre Duetti for violin and bassoon Paganini also proves to be a very sophisticated composer of chamber music who succeeds in lending each of the three duets an individual, independent character. Among other things, these works have in common the beautiful cantability of their themes and a writing style radiating obvious joy in the shared musical experience, in “jouer,” as the French so fittingly term it. The influence of song is in constant evidence when we speak of the Italian instrumental music of the nineteenth century in general and in particular of Paganini’s chamber music or that of composers such as Rossini and Donizetti who distinguished themselves mainly in the field of the opera. In the three duets this vocal influence is naturally combined with the clear requirements of instrumental part writing.

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Paganini: String Quartet No. 3 - Tre duetti concertanti / Falasca, Fiore, Pieranunzi, Leardini, Carlini
CPO Sep 2021
CD
$18.99

Marchesi & Schubert: The String Quartets Project, Vol. 3

Haenssler Classic

$15.99 ~~$20.99~~ Save 25% Oct 04, 2024

Schubert Vol. 3 Looking ahead to 2028 and the 200th anniversary of the composer's death, the Alinde Quartet will annually release a disc of Schubert string quartets for the next eight years, alongside a specially commissioned work. Finding the ideal sound world for Schubert's quartets is by no means easy, yet the Alinde strikes a near-ideal balance between internal clarity and textural warmth, shone through by sparkling intonation.

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Marchesi & Schubert: The String Quartets Project, Vol. 3
Haenssler Classic Oct 2024
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

STRING QUARTETS

TACET Musikproduktion

$23.99 Jan 01, 1990

What musicianship! What an intense poetic aura in their playing!... this andante is a veritable dream, the height of pure poetry, and this disc is an enchanting ceremony... (Repertoire) Just when you get complacent and think you've heard it all before, a new group comes to town and blows you away. The Auryn Quartet did it Sunday... (The Washington Post) the young Stuttgart label TACET set a new standard with it's very first chamber music release. This CD has benchmark value.(HiFiVision)

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STRING QUARTETS
TACET Musikproduktion Jan 1990
CD
$23.99