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 Karl Schlechta, clarinet; Susanne Kaldor, violin; Akos Hernadi, piano; or below, in what might be this release We jump ahead now to a much later work in Bartóks’ output, having given him our attention for an entire week, even if … Continue reading Bartók: Contrasts, Sz. 111
performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Takács Quartet Bartók’s second quartet was written between 1915 and 1917, in Rákoskeresztúr, Hungary (or Gerersdorf in German, for those of you who don’t like consonants as much). What you may or … Continue reading Bartók String Quartet no. 2, Sz. 76
performed by the Borodin Quartet with Sviatoslav Richter My dear friend! Do you remember that quintet (A major) with piano which, thanks to your efforts, was performed in Prague for the first time, about 14 years ago? I cannot find … Continue reading Dvorak Piano Quintet No. 1 in A, op. 5, B. 28
performed by the Zurich String Trio, or below by Perlman, Zukerman, and Harrell This trio is the second in a series of three works that make up the opus no. 9, the first of which we discussed yesterday. This set … Continue reading Beethoven String Trio no. 4 in D, op. 9 no. 2
performed by the Zurich String Trio or below by the Grumiaux Trio Here we have from Beethoven another set of early works published under the same opus number, the three op. 9 string trios. We’ll be discussing one per article, … Continue reading Beethoven String Trio no. 3 in G, op. 9 no. 1
performed by the Endellion String Quartet and David Adams, viola, or below by the Zurich String Quintet Composed in 1795, Beethoven’s op. 4 was originally an octet written for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns. That work was given … Continue reading Beethoven String Quintet in E flat, op. 4
performed by the Maggini Quartet Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was born September 8, 1934 in Salford, Lancashire. He told his parents at the ripe young age of four that he wanted to be a composer, after having seen Gilbert & … Continue reading Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Naxos Quartet no. 1, op. 229
performed by the Arditti Quartet Brian Ferneyhough may well be one of the most important composers to emerge from the latter half of this century. Simultaneously famous and infamous, he is a controversial figure of world renown, bent on making … Continue reading Brian Ferneyhough: String Quartet no. 2
performed by the Delmé Quartet (Sorry, no YouTube this week, but I’m going to be linking below to program notes from Hyperion, who sells physical and digital copies of this music here. It’s also available on iTunes.) I’m very glad … Continue reading Simpson String Quartet no. 1
performed by the Auryn Quartet, or below by the Badke Quartet, with Tamsin Waley-Cohen as first violin We’ve actually featured Britten before, but only once, and we didn’t give anything of a bio, so here’s something short. Benjamin Britten was … Continue reading Britten String Quartet no. 2 in C, Op. 36
performed by The Holywell Ensemble (Golly Gee Willikers, another with no YouTube. I should check on that more often, but I also won’t let the free availability of music on YouTube influence what I share, especially if I’ve spent the money … Continue reading John Ireland: piano trio no. 3 in E
performed by the Dartington Piano Trio, or below by Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Maurice Gendron, cello; Benjamin Britten, piano We’ve visited Frank Bridge before, a number of years ago, but that was a while ago, and I didn’t discuss his upbringing and … Continue reading Bridge Piano Trio no. 2
performed by the Divertimenti Ensemble (Sorry, again no YouTube here, but go support good record labels like Hyperion and buy the album if it’s something you feel you may like. I’ll be honest. There are some works that I’d purchase … Continue reading Herbert Howells: String Quartet no. 3 ‘In Gloucestershire’
performed by the Coull String Quartet and Allan Schiller, piano; or below by the Sorrel Quartet with Ian Brown, piano Alice Elgar was quite right: it is a new urgency, pointed and refined by the discipline of writing chamber music, a … Continue reading Elgar Piano Quintet in Am, op. 84
performed by the Mannheim String Quartet with Joachim Griesheimer, available here on iTunes (U.S. store) or on Amazon (No YouTube today, but I highly recommend purchasing the recording of this work; it’s exquisite.) Smyth’s music was seldom evaluated as simply the work of a composer … Continue reading Dame Ethel Smyth: String Quintet in E, op. 1
performed by William Purvis (sorry, no YouTube today, but hop on over to the Naxos page featuring this album to hear a few snippets of this vibrant, varied work for solo horn.) Doesn’t anyone here know anything about baseball? … … Continue reading Babbitt: Around the Horn
performed by Richard Watkins, horn; Pauline Lowbury, violin; Christopher Green Armytage, piano (Sorry, no dice on YouTube for today’s piece, but if you want to preview it, you can do so at Hyperion’s page for the piece, whence comes much … Continue reading Simpson Trio for horn, violin and piano
performed by Tamás Vásáry, Thomas Brandis & Norbert Hauptmann, or below by Dale Clevenger, Itzhak Perlman, and Daniel Barenboim It’s been a while since we’ve seen Brahms on the blog, in fact about nine months, in his fourth and final symphony. Today’s … Continue reading Brahms Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet Mozart’s fifth string quartet was written in 1773, the fourth of the Milanese quartets, as they are called, for where they were composed. Like all of the Milanese quartets, … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 5 in F major, K. 158
performed by Judith Bettina and Parnassus under Anthony Korf (sorry, there’s no video here again today, but if you can spare the dollar or whatever, I highly recommend purchasing the recording [I guess it has to be the entire album, so about $10…] on … Continue reading Babbitt’s The Head of the Bed
for clarinet and piano performed by Sabine Meyer and Oleg Maisenberg But I must thank you for your censure just as much as for everything you ever gave me, in the full knowledge that it is meant well—and for my … Continue reading Berg: Vier Stücke, op. 5
