performed by the Cicada Quartet Maderna’s Quartet is the hardest nut to crack [on the album], with its fragmented phrases and restless rhythms and dynamics. But behind the notes the Cikadas’ deeply committed playing reveals glimpses of a dramatic personality … Continue reading Bruno Maderna: Quartetto per archi in due tempi
performed by Quintette Nielsen & Pierre Roullier, or below by The Philharmonic Five I feel a little bit bad that this is the first representation that Berio will be getting in our series here, but while he is a critically important name … Continue reading Luciano Berio: Opus Number Zoo, Children’s Play for Wind Quintet
performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Maryvonne Le Dizes, Pierre Strauch & Alain Damiens or below by Pianist Matthew Schellhorn and Soloists of the Philharmonia Orchestra: James Clark (violin), Barnaby Robson (clarinet), David Cohen (cello) Never was I listened to with such rapt attention … Continue reading Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps
performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Kodaly Quartet Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity… -Claude Debussy Our first piece in the Darmstadt Series isn’t. … Continue reading Debussy String Quartet in Gm, op. 10
performed by the Juilliard Quartet Non multa sed multum (Not much in quantity, but much in content) A Deruchie We’re nearing the end of a long stretch of history (of course skipping over a lot) into the modern era, but … Continue reading Webern: Six Bagatelles, op. 9
performed by the LaSalle Quartet I owe very, very much to Mozart; and if one studies, for instance, the way in which I write for string quartet, then one cannot deny that I have learned this directly from Mozart. And … Continue reading Schoenberg String Quartet in D major
performed by the Lasalle Quartet or as below: I’m not going to take the time now to discuss why Alexander von Zemlinsky is as important a name as it is and do an Influential People post or anything; I’m not even sure … Continue reading Zemlinsky String Quartet no. 1 in A, op. 4
performed by the Fine Arts Quartet and Gil Sharon. People (rightly) think of Bruckner as a craftsman, a constructor of enormous, highly-developed, colossal symphonies, and there’s a reason for that. As we saw this week (with the exception of his study symphony, a … Continue reading Bruckner String Quintet in F major, WAB 112
performed by the Fine Arts Quartet I’ll be referring to this article on AllMusic by Blair Johnston throughout my little discussion below. I didn’t really know much about the work, and hadn’t learned much about it from anywhere else, but that is … Continue reading Schumann String Quartet in A minor, Op. 41 no. 1
performed by the Talich quartet To be clear, this is not Mendelssohn’s String Quartet no. 1 (which is confusingly also in E-flat major) but it is his first string quartet. This one was written in 1823, but not published until 1879. At the time of writing, the fourteen-year … Continue reading Mendelssohn String Quartet in E-flat, (posth.)
performed by Steven Isserlis, or below by Rostropovich (Is it sacrilege to say I don’t like M-Rost’s Bach? As I have discussed below, I have gotten very attached and used to Isserlis’ readings of these works, as new a recording … Continue reading Bach Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat, BWV 1010
performed by the Melos Quartet There don’t seem to be any portraits of the Young Franz, at least not that I could dig up in a lazy search. Let’s listen. “Wait… isn’t this in C major?” It’s the darkest C … Continue reading Schubert String Quartet no. 4 in C, D. 46
performed by the Melos quartet So, like the early days with Haydn, we’re still in an early phase of Schubert’s quartet writing. Schubert never lived to be the age Haydn was when he wrote his op. 20 quartets, where we … Continue reading Schubert String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat, D 36
performed by the Artemis quartet, or in a live performance below by the Belcea quartet (I always love to watch the intensity of the performers playing these works) We’re on to Beethoven’s second string quartet, the no. 2 of the opus 18 … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet No. 2 in G, op. 18, No. 2
performed by the Zurich string trio, or below in a much brisker rendition by the Grumiaux Trio So trios… We talked about Beethoven’s op. 1 piano trios starting here, the first of those also in E flat. That was last summer, … Continue reading Beethoven Trio for violin, viola & cello in E flat, Op. 3
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below, in an echoey recording by the Festetics Quartet We are now into the ‘Milanese quartets’, a true cycle of six quartets the young Mozart wrote in Milan between 1772 and 1773. These Milanese quartets … Continue reading W. A. Mozart String Quartet No. 2 in D major, K. 155
performed by the Buchberger quartet, or in a nice performance by the Quatuor Mosaïques This! This is the kind of thing we’ve been working toward. Haydn’s next quartet (reflecting the order in his own catalogue) is the string quartet no. … Continue reading Haydn String Quartet no 23 in Fm, op. 20 no. 5
performed by Steven Isserlis, or in a nice (if not slightly resonant) performance below by Jean-Guihen Queyras (cover image from here, photographed by Alex Markovich) Back to Bach. Also, it’s May now, so hop down below to see what that means for … Continue reading Bach Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009
performed by the Buchberger Quartet, or per the below links We’re just burning through the early Haydn quartets! (Maybe he should have, too! I kid, really.) The opus 17 quartets are as follows: Quartet No. 17 in F major, Op. … Continue reading SQS: Haydn String quartets 17-22, op. 17
performed by the New Vienna String Quartet (above is the first ‘movement’; the entire work is available from this playlist) I have conducted the most difficult scores of Wagner; I have written complicated music myself in scores of up to … Continue reading Schoenberg String Quartet no. 1, op. 7
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, Cecil Aronowitz & William Pleeth, or a stunning performance below from the Israeli Chamber Project Brahms’ chamber music is something special. I say that not being very familiar with it, really, but being far more eager … Continue reading SQS: Brahms String Sextet no. 1 in B flat, op 18
Fugue for Thought 