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 Stenhammar Quartet, or below by the Glazunov Quartet (cover image by Johannes Plenio) At the beginning one does not expect much from this piece completed under the tutelage of Nikolay Myaskovsky on November 20, 1928; a study piece and … Continue reading Dmitry Kabalevsky: String Quartet no. 1 in Am, op. 8
performed by Chamber Music Northwest, or below by performers at the Cleveland Institute of Music (cover image by Joanna Kosinska) We’re going to see that Prokofiev’s self-plagiarism was relatively common, at least in this period, and considering he wrote such … Continue reading Prokofiev Quintet in Gm, op. 39
performed by the Goldner String Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartet (cover image by David von Diemar) One of Stravinsky’s few efforts in the string quartet form, the Three Pieces dates from 1914, right after Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. … Continue reading Stravinsky: Three Pieces for String Quartet
performed by members of the Berlin Philharmonic Octet, or as below, by people you may recognize (cover image by Christopher Harris) Say goodbye to Beethoven. At least for a few weeks. We’re working our way through the earlier pieces of … Continue reading Beethoven Septet in E flat, op. 20
performed by Eric LeSage, Paul Meyer, and Claudio Bohórquez, or below by José Franch-Ballester, Ani Aznavoorian and Warren Jones (cover image by Michael D. Beckwith) Today’s work is the one that ruined it all for Beethoven’s piano trios. Just kidding. … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Trio in B flat, op. 11
performed by the Wind Soloists of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, or as below by Ensemble Philidor (cover image by Aaron Burden) Today’s piece is the first in a group of five works for six instruments. A few weeks ago … Continue reading Mozart Divertimento no. 8 in F, K. 213
performed by the Grumiaux Trio and William Bennett, or as below by Ensemble Connect (cover image by Aleyna Rentz) With this piece, we jump ahead a bit in Mozart’s chronology, to 1777. The work was apparently completed on Christmas day … Continue reading Mozart Flute Quartet no. 1 in D, K. 285
performed by the Vienna-Mozart Trio, or below by the Mozartean Players (cover image by Ales Krivec) It’s really a divertimento, I guess, scored for piano trio. Now, if we go back a few years to our discussion of Beethoven’s op. … Continue reading Mozart Piano Trio no. 1 in B flat, K. 254
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
