A series made up primarily of the string quartet repertoire, with other string and/or chamber works included here and there. There’s so much of this stuff that’s so worthy of attention, and it would take too long to get through in the main mid-week series, so here we are.
performed by the Éder Quartet with János Fehérvári, or below by Les Adieux (cover image by Jan Meeus) As evidenced by the catalogue number for this work, Mozart’s first quintet for strings came right on the heels of the six … Continue reading Mozart String Quintet no. 1 in B flat, K. 174
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet (cover image by David von Diemar) Mozart’s 13th string quartet is the last of his set of six ‘Viennese quartets,’ and the only one in a minor key. In … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 13 in Dm, K. 173
performed by the Meta4 Quartet (cover image by Aaron Burden) We welcome Erkki Melartin back to the blog, after around a year since the Finnish symphony series, but finally with his first quartet. There’s (perhaps unsurprisingly) precious little information available … Continue reading Melartin String Quartet no. 1 in Em, op. 36 no. 1
performed by the Amadeus quartet with Cecil Aronowitz and William Pleeth, or below by the Alberni Quartet with Roger Best and Moray Welsh (cover image by Brooke Lark) If you have, like I used to have, any doubt that where … Continue reading Brahms String Sextet in G, op. 36
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet (cover image by Neven Krcmarek) As discussed yesterday, Mozart’s ‘Viennese’ quartets were his second set of six (grouped together as suggested by his father), after the ‘Milanese’ quartets. Todays’ … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 12 in B flat, K. 172
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet (cover image by Mitch Lensink) Mozart’s eleventh string quartet is the fourth in his second series of six string quartets, which came to be known as the ‘Viennese’ quartets. … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 11 in E flat, K. 171
performed by Delmé Quartet, available on iTunes or from Hyperion (cover image by Paul Morris) Robert Simpson’s fifth string quartet dates from 1974 and is the second of the three quartets (4-6) that make up a small set of quartets … Continue reading Simpson String Quartet no. 5
performed by the Delmé Quartet, available digitally basically nowhere but the iTunes store or Hyperion (cover image by Serge Kutuzov) Ah, Robert Simpson, the real inspiration behind the Editor’s Choice series, and someone I discovered just by digging through forums … Continue reading Simpson String Quartet no. 4
performed by the Kronos Quartet, or below by the Quatuor Molinari The treatment of the instruments and the formal process aim for the impression of a quasi-improvisation in which the “uncertainty” is continually increasing. In the second movement it explodes … Continue reading Schnittke String Quartet no. 1
performed by the Jean Sibelius Quartet, available on Spotify (cover image by Martin Adams) We now welcome Aulis Sallinen to the Editor’s Choice series. He’s the only living member of the roster that I’m aware of. We first saw him in the … Continue reading Sallinen String Quartet no. 1, op. 14
performed by the Arditti Quartet, a recording that’s almost completely unavailable now (cover image by Martino Pietropoli) Henze’s second string quartet was written in 1952, when the composer was around 26 years old. It was a commission from the Südwestfunk … Continue reading Henze String Quartet no. 2
performed by the Kontra Quartet, available on Spotify (cover image by Arash Asghari) Vagn Holmboe’s fourth quartet dates from 1954, about four years after the previous quartet. This was already after his eighth symphony, and he would go back and revise this … Continue reading Holmboe String Quartet no. 4, op. 63
performed by the Quatuor Danel, available on Spotify (cover image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen) The second string quartet of Mieczysław Weinberg was written in 1940. There is unfortunately not really a lot online about this piece, so this introductory bit will … Continue reading Weinberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 3
performed by the Martinů Quartet, available from Spotify on this album (cover image by Chris Barbalis) Martinů’s brilliantly engaging second quartet was written in 1925, and published in 1927. Depending on the source, it was written either “in Paris” (says Keith Anderson … Continue reading Martinů String Quartet no. 2, H. 150
performed by the Lysell String Quartet, available on Spotify (cover image by Delyn Stirewalt) And here we are with more of the Editor’s Choice series. For a refresher, this series features 20th century composers who gave us a whole cycle … Continue reading Rosenberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 21
performed by Trio Wanderer, or below by the Beaux Arts Trio (cover image by Aaron Burden) The second piece of Beethoven’s op. 70 piano trios is in E flat, and carries no nickname or subtitle or anything. The work, like … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Trio in E flat, op. 70 no. 2
performed by Trio Wanderer, or below by Barenboim, Du Pre and Zukerman (cover image by Norbert Levajsics) Moving right along in Beethoven’s catalogue, we come to the op. 70 piano trios, of which there are two. These works come just … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Trio in D, op. 70 no. 1, ‘Ghost’
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartet Would it be going too far to suppose a connection between this extraordinary work and Beethoven’s advancing deafness? Could that painfully groping introduction seem like someone trying to … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 9 in C, op. 59 no. 3
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartet (cover image by Francisco De Legarreta C.) We find ourselves now at the second of Beethoven’s three Razumovsky quartets. The works were written in 1806 for the Russian … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 8 in Em, op. 59 no. 2
performed by the Amadeus Quartet (cover image by Brooke Lark) So we, uh… jump back a few important years to the tenth quartet, written in 1773. The middle of this decade is clearly a time when the composer advances noticeably … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 10 in C, K. 170
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet (cover image by Irina Blok) Mozart’s ninth string quartet, the second of the set of six called the ‘Viennese quartets,’ was composed in (August of) 1773. (Apparently, according to … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 9 in A, K. 169
