Reviews of String Quartet CDs: PART 1

[snyprrr]

Per Norgard: Str Qrts 7-10/ Kroeger Qrt (dacapo)

I famously hated Norgard's 1-6/ Kontra Qrt (dacapo)...maybe the music, maybe the playing or acoustic...but this disc came out at the same time I got 1-6, so, well, I HAD to. for the greater good.

Well, I gotta say, this cd is a love letter. Night and day. I'm going to do one of those "it's the greatest...blabla" so, skipping that I'm just going to say it is one of the best sounding, best performances of brand new material...and finally, the "infinity" composer arrives.  Apparently the Kroegers practiced to the point Norgard fell in love with them, and it shows.

Two "scientific" quartets, and two "programmatic/romantic" qrts. Xenakis+Dutilleux? a bit late Ligeti? HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.Beautiful packaging to boot.



Boucourechliev: String Quartets comp./Qtr. Ysaye (aeon)or neos!

I already had the Archipel on the MFA cd (also by Ysaye).  The two late qrts are totally different, in, for me, is the typical valedectory mode for modern composers a la Berio (Notturno/ Glossa). No.2 "Mirrors" is like the life's summing up of what has transpired in 20XX qrt. writing. Late Beethoven/ Bartok insects/ scurrying, hushed, and harsh traffic interruptions...very typical, but very satisfying to me.  The 3rd is a one mvmt distillation, even more like a modern Beethoven slow mvmt with a long cello intro., and only 11min.  These two pieces have shot up my ladder of favs.

The Archipel(1968) receives a bigger sound this time.  A major player in the 60s aleatory sweepstakes.  A, hrhmm...classic. I haven't compared too much yet, but i preferred the ending on the MFA.  The new one seemed strangely rushed.  Musically, it's got everything you'd want from the best 60s pieces. A successful answer to Berio's "Sincronie."

Sound is "big"...playing dedicated...music inspired...beautiful packaging to boot, again!



Nono/Lachenmann: String Quartets/Diotima Qrt. (assai)

Two Arditti heavyweights go head to head, and.....THE ARDITTI LOSE!!! I sold my 2 Ardittis after hearing this.  Now, I haven't heard EVERY version of the Nono (one by Moscow SQ?, another pared with Beethoven?), but I can't see, or don't need to (I'd like to hear the laSalle again, but I imagine a bad acoustic)...this Nono is definitely one of my comfort foods.  And to be paired with lachenmann No.2 is quite a coup.  Notes by lachenmann.  If you're in the market, don't hesitate. Beautiful packaging to boot, again!



Holliger: String Quartet/Qrt. Bern (wergo)reissue

The very greatest (1973) Xenakis string quartet EVER! pERIOD.



Villa-Lobos: String Quartets 7-11/Qrt Amazonia (kaurup)

This set completes the original survey begun by the Bessler-Reis on le chant du monde so long ago.  The cellist remains the same.  This makes this the only complete survey by a Brazilian qrt.  I can't recall to much about Qrt. latinoamerica/dorian...so comparisons are useless, but no one has ever said anything bad about them. Same goes for the Danubius/marco polo.
BUT it's interesting to have a survey by ostensibly 2 qrts. And these middle qrts. are the black hole for me.  The first 6 quartets work up progressively from meager yet charming beginnings to the classic Brazialian No.5, and mature masterwork No.6.

No.7 is the longest,@40min, and seems...a smidge like Bloch's 50min No.1...I'm going to have to hear this some more.

Now No.8 is V-Ls answer to Schoenberg (+ compare Milhaud No.5), and I think V-L really is having a ball exploring 12tone, and this is one of the funnest works like this I've heard.  Really almost on a par, or maybe above a bit. Probably the "clearest" 12t. I've heard, very unique to V-L.
No.9 switches neoclassical gears, but retains the same program. Both qrts. make a pair of sorts.

No.10 I found the least successful so far of his more mature qrts., though at this point, with 17 to choose from...who cares?

No.11 was another eye opener. Here he returns to the tropics, yet with all that's come before.  After No.5, it could be the best of all (6 notwithstanding).

I still don't have all 17 down cold, but some DO rise to the top.  I'm glad I was finally able to hear this black hole (I've had the others in the series for a while), and grateful that it DID yield lots of great stuff, because, statistically there shouldn't be this much good stuff, but V-L took Haydn as his model, so qrt after qrt is full of fun and games.

If you're going to try....go for the bunch...and enjoy probably, at least one of the most consistant cycles of 20XX. Though I enjoy Milhaud's 18 equally, yet they are more diverse than v-L's constant 4 mvmt scheme (no slight).



Roger-Ducasse: String Quartet No.2 in D (1953)/Lowenguth (mandala)

This is one of those things you find...recorded in '53...THE faure memorial string quartet. 50min. of pure French bliss.  This is just one of those great things, no review needed.  Along with the Vox recordings of Faure and Roussel, this makes a great testament to the Lowenguth. 
I have been itching to sample the 6 Ropartz quartets (1890-54: qrt dates) and Koechlin, and Magnard, and D'Indy...ah, the nature of addiction!



Gorecki" String Quartet No.3 "songs are sung"/Kronos nonesuch

I've had NO pleasure w/Gorecki passed the beauty of Sym. No.3.  Every year and a half or so I get the first Kronos dosc from the library to remind myself (I can stomach No.1 very slightly), so when I saw this showed up....

WOW. 50min. of....all I'll say is, picture everything you don't like about this composer stretched ad infinitum...talk about minimalism!  And please, someone tell me I'm not hearing "oh come all ye faithful" in the middle mvmt.  Between the anonymous broody repetitions, and the shosty/schnttke stabbing chords (totalitarianism), this thing just left me...and I thought No.2 was vacuous and endless.  This is surely the U.N. quartet Riley always wanted to write.

Schnittke, he ain't. The Gorecki of Sym. 3, he ain't. Who is this guy? Keep in mind the prestige of having Kronos beg you for your music, and having mainstream warner's plugging you. Sad.



Carlos Chavez: String Quartets/Q. Latinoamerica (urtext)

3 qrts.,one short fuge, one trio.

Was I expecting more?  I knew he wrote Haydn-ishly! early.  Qrt 1 is really nothing too...eh, you know? anonymous
No.2 subs a bass for vln2, and was written to teach, so, it too is of limited interest to me...nothin special.

No.3 comes from the 40s, and shows the mature Chavez.  It is based on the "Daughters of Cholide?" which features on other Chavez cds.  The music has a slight ancientness about it, with some Hindemithian nobility (Nobl. Visione), and is very solid and perfect in what it is...it strives for some depths, I just don't know how far down it really goes.  But it's mood is memorable, like a noble ballet music (which, I believe, is what it was supposed to be).  i'm thinking a little of Respighi's Dorian qrt., though I like the Chavez better.

Lastly, the late trio, Invencion, comes from the "malipiero" phase of his creativity (these two share a lot in common), the "non repeating" transformational process and is the most interesting thing on the disc per se.  i'm sure it sounds like a lot of the composers of his generation were doing at the time, perhaps a Hindemith trio No.3 (1963).

So, in all, I was hoping for so much more. Amazing, 2 competing versions of Chavez qrts at the same time?  the others come from the  Grammy winning series by SW Chamber on Cambria.  I heard most of that series, and I tell you, Chavez has a LOT of interesting chamber music, but as for the qrts 1-3, only no.3 rises, as music, but not really as quartet music.  The trio is part of Invenciones on the Cambria disc.  I didn't have the library copy of SW qrts to compare.

Q Latinoamerica are given a pretty thin sound with small acoustic, not my sonic choice for the material. Qrt. 3 could have used a little more fullness for the somber nobility.



MORE TO COME.