Sergei Taneyev's Tent of Twirbling Tones

[71 dB]

Carpe Diem Quartet's Volume 3 (quartets 5 and 7) is now available for streaming on Naxos Music Library, but it says a CD release will come later.

That CD will go to my shopping list! I have recently purchased the first 2 volumes and enjoing them a great deal. 

[Sammy]

I've just pulled the trigger at Amazon.ca, Cato.  (re:  Northern Flowers 5 volumes Taneyev Quartet recordings)

3 of them shall arrive before December 24th! 

Excellent decision.  Although the Carpe Diem discs are quite fine, the Taneyev Quartet's performances are more incisive.

[Brahmsian]

Excellent decision.  Although the Carpe Diem discs are quite fine, the Taneyev Quartet's performances are more incisive.

You are the reason I pulled the trigger, Don!    I know you love the Taneyev Q's performances.  I'm pretty sure I will to, plus they are Sergei Taneyev chamber works, so I can't possibly go wrong!

[snyprrr]

You are the reason I pulled the trigger, Don!    I know you love the Taneyev Q's performances.  I'm pretty sure I will to, plus they are Sergei Taneyev chamber works, so I can't possibly go wrong!

Please do get back with opinions. I have long hesitated with Taneyev. I would like just one quartet.

[Karl Henning]

What if it just reminds you of Schoenberg, eh? ; )

[Cato]

Excellent decision.  Although the Carpe Diem discs are quite fine, the Taneyev Quartet's performances are more incisive.

The Carpe Diem Quartet is based here in Ohio, so I am just a little biased!     But here is what I thought last year of one of the Taneyev Quartet performances: Chamber Nut: you will need to tell me if you hear the same problems when your set arrives!

Possibly a bad pressing?

I have just heard - for the first time - The Taneyev Quartet performing, or attempting to perform, the Eighth and Ninth Quartets of Sergei Taneyev.

This is not the edition I have, but here is a newer picture of what they are selling:



If you want to hear wavering microtones in these quartets, as if Taneyev had cosmically pre-channeled Bartok and maybe Penderecki, then this is the CD for you!   

There are spots in the slow movement of the Eighth Quartet where I thought an Alois Haba quartet had been spliced in suddenly!

Apparently intonation is a problem with the group on these recordings: I found some reviews complaining about the same thing on other quartets. 

Let's hope the new NAXOS survey of Taneyev Quartets will not show similar unintended experiments in quarter-tones!   

[Brahmsian]

Please do get back with opinions. I have long hesitated with Taneyev. I would like just one quartet.

Get them both, at once, Snypps.  However, if you can only get one set, do go with the Taneyev Quartet ensemble on Northern Flowers.

*Must have chamber music.*   and also *I can't believe Taneyev isn't considered in the Pantheon of the other great composers* (a-la 'I can't believe it's not butter'!) 

Seriously, purchase!! 

[rigormortis]

Can you guys help me out on these Taneyevs?

I have:

the Melodia Taneyev: Quintet op.16,
the Melodia Taneyev: Quartett No.7 1880, by Oucharec, Loeclii, Solovjev, Levizon,
the Melodia Taneyev: Ioann Damaskin Cantate on Tolstoy by Yurlov Repub. Acad. Russian Chorus
the Melodia Taneyev: Violin & Cello Concerto No.2 op.5,
Sort of these records:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=11076844%40N00&q=taneyev&m=text

Are there any tips on listening with these?
Thanks.

[Brahmsian]

Yay, Volume II and Volume IV of Taneyev's complete string quartets (Northern Flowers, Taneyev SQ) has finally arrived, after a long wait!!

That means I now have all five volumes, and ready to listen to all of them afresh.

May have to postpone my Shostakovich symphonies and Dvorak binges until I gorge myself completely in all my Taneyev discs!   

'Tis the month for more Twirbling Tones!! 

[Karl Henning]

Huzzah, Ray! Reminds me, I need to revisit the quartet disc I've got . . . .

[Brahmsian]

Just about run through the Taneyev SQ cycle again, on the Northern Flowers label.  I, like Don, think very highly of the passionate performances.

Top notch sound and perfect playing?  Perhaps not, but the performances are wonderful, and I think bring out the Romantic Russian of Taneyev's music.  It has been said many times, but it is no exaggeration.  Taneyev, his signature stamp completely original, evokes a feeling of yes...a Russian Brahms or Bach.  Always blossoming with beautiful melodies, themes and rhythms, but always with some restraint.  Never full blown let her rip Romanticism, like Tchaikovsky (and I love that too!) 

Having said that, I love that Carpe Diem SQ is recording the complete cycle on Naxos.  I would not want to be with either set! 

[Brahmsian]

What is the opposite of reverb, in music?  Is it: 'preverb'? 

I detect some 'preverb' on a few occasions in the Taneyev SQ Northern Flowers recordings.  In the Scherzo movement of the 7th quartet, I believe.  Just after the slow introduction, and just before the start of the lively tarantella-rhythm theme.

Probably just a recording oversight by the sound engineers.

[Cato]

I just received the following CD:



The Suite is perhaps better known for the violin.

The Canzona is a most expressive gem, and was originally intended for a clarinet, according to the notes. I was charmed by the opening bars and stayed that way throughout the work.

Another CD on Amazon also offers the Canzona for cello, plus a host of other works: it has 2 5-star reviews:

[asin]B00004RGDN[/asin]

And YouTube offers this (the "Cincinnati Philharmonia" is the student orchestra of the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati):

http://www.youtube.com/v/16-XajrlPWU

[snyprrr]

Just about run through the Taneyev SQ cycle again, on the Northern Flowers label.  I, like Don, think very highly of the passionate performances.

Top notch sound and perfect playing?  Perhaps not, but the performances are wonderful, and I think bring out the Romantic Russian of Taneyev's music.  It has been said many times, but it is no exaggeration.  Taneyev, his signature stamp completely original, evokes a feeling of yes...a Russian Brahms or Bach.  Always blossoming with beautiful melodies, themes and rhythms, but always with some restraint.  Never full blown let her rip Romanticism, like Tchaikovsky (and I love that too!) 

Having said that, I love that Carpe Diem SQ is recording the complete cycle on Naxos.  I would not want to be with either set! 

So, which SQ should I start off with?,... just one please. I'm not as prone to ST as most, I need 'the clincher'.

[Daverz]

Used copies of the Odeon Trio recording that I mentioned much earlier in the thread have come way down in price.  It seems that prices in the Amazon Marketplace have come down overall, and I wonder if this is due to any Amazon policy changes.

[asin]B000274SUE[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

The Wikipedia article on Taneyev includes the introductory clause, While Taneyev lacked an original creative gift . . . ouch! I say, ouch, son!

In line with snypsss's query . . . looks like string quartets n^os. 7 through 9 are actually earlier works, FWIW.

[Brahmsian]

So, which SQ should I start off with?,... just one please. I'm not as prone to ST as most, I need 'the clincher'.

OK, if I can only recommend just one quartet, I say try the 4th in A minor, Op.11

And you can try either the Carpe Diem SQ on Naxos and Taneyev SQ on Northern Flowers.

[Cato]

The Wikipedia article on Taneyev includes the introductory clause, While Taneyev lacked an original creative gift . . . ouch! I say, ouch, son!

Obviously written by a Yale man!   0:)

[Brahmsian]

The Wikipedia article on Taneyev includes the introductory clause, While Taneyev lacked an original creative gift . . . ouch! I say, ouch, son!

Definitely the opposite of what I believe.    If anything, he lacked a good 'promoter' for his music?

Oh well, it was decades, if not nearly a century, before Schubert's name became etched in stone.

[snyprrr]

OK, if I can only recommend just one quartet, I say try the 4th in A minor, Op.11

And you can try either the Carpe Diem SQ on Naxos and Taneyev SQ on Northern Flowers.

ok, that the one then!