Label: CAvi
Format: CD
Barcode: 4260085531011
Catalog number: AVI 8553101
Releasedate: 06-09-19
Format: CD
Barcode: 4260085531011
Releasedate: 06-09-19
- Latest Live release from the famous chamber music festival SPANNUNGEN (June) 2018
- Russian String quartets are not very well known over in the West, but more than valuable to characterise the Eastern Russian orientated genre
- Alexander Borodin is one of the key figures of the Russian music school
RUSSIAN STRING QUARTETS
BORODIN: „Many Russian instrumental works of the 19th century were based on a programme, and the same holds true of Alexander Borodin’s Second String Quartet. Here the underlying subject was the great love he felt for his wife Ekaterina. In 1877, the composer (who was also a doctor and a chemist) travelled to Heidelberg, where he had met her 16 years earlier. In letters he described to her how he was returning to the spots they had visited together, and added: “I would give anything to have you here at my side.” Borodin finished writing the D Major Quartet on a date that was likewise symbolic: on 10 August 1881, their twentieth anniversary. ……“ (from the liner notes by Mathias Corvin)
Tchaikovsky managed to make ends meet by teaching, until his concert overture The Tempest (1873) drew widespread attention to his talent as a composer. In high spirits after that resounding success, Tchaikovsky euphorically wrote his Second String Quartet in the course of one night in January 1874. This work is even more elaborate and mature than the more well-known First String Quartet, with which he had attempted to supplement his meager professor’s salary in 1871. He certainly had less trouble composing the Second Quartet: “I regard it as my best work; no other piece has poured forth from me so simply and easily. I wrote it almost in one sitting.”
Musical connections with Mozart’s string quartets are already evident in the first movement.“…. (from the line notes Pedro Obiera)
BORODIN: „Many Russian instrumental works of the 19th century were based on a programme, and the same holds true of Alexander Borodin’s Second String Quartet. Here the underlying subject was the great love he felt for his wife Ekaterina. In 1877, the composer (who was also a doctor and a chemist) travelled to Heidelberg, where he had met her 16 years earlier. In letters he described to her how he was returning to the spots they had visited together, and added: “I would give anything to have you here at my side.” Borodin finished writing the D Major Quartet on a date that was likewise symbolic: on 10 August 1881, their twentieth anniversary. ……“ (from the liner notes by Mathias Corvin)
Tchaikovsky managed to make ends meet by teaching, until his concert overture The Tempest (1873) drew widespread attention to his talent as a composer. In high spirits after that resounding success, Tchaikovsky euphorically wrote his Second String Quartet in the course of one night in January 1874. This work is even more elaborate and mature than the more well-known First String Quartet, with which he had attempted to supplement his meager professor’s salary in 1871. He certainly had less trouble composing the Second Quartet: “I regard it as my best work; no other piece has poured forth from me so simply and easily. I wrote it almost in one sitting.”
Musical connections with Mozart’s string quartets are already evident in the first movement.“…. (from the line notes Pedro Obiera)
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1String Quartet No. 2 in D Major (1881)I Allegro moderato08:15
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2String Quartet No. 2 in D Major (1881)II Scherzo. Allegro04:44
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3String Quartet No. 2 in D Major (1881)III Nocturne. Andante08:04
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4String Quartet No. 2 in D Major (1881)IV Finale. Andante - Vivace06:54
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5String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 22 (1874)I Adagio – Moderato assai12:47
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6String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 22 (1874)II Scherzo. Allegro giusto06:26
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7String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 22 (1874)III Andante ma non tanto11:56
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8String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 22 (1874)IV Finale. Allegro con moto06:27