Performer : The Stenhammar Quartet, Sweden
Label: BIS
Release: October 2013
As I posted few weeks ago about new Stenhammar String Quartet cycle HERE, I just saw the upcoming volume 2 on this series. Volume 2 will continued the conversation with Sweden master Wilhelm Stenhammar to String Quartet No.5 in C Major and no.6 in D minor. And for most exciting parts, this volume will also premiered a String Quartet in F minor dated 1897. This string quartet will consisted of four movements.
We looking forward for this release and hat off for new bloods of Sweden who done this cycle, Stenhammar Quartet.
Professional review:
After the harmonic and technical audacities of his Fourth String Quartet, Wilhelm Stenhammar evidently felt the need to explore other paths. Thus, in the Fifth Quartet, he makes a new beginning, as indicated by the title 'Serenade' that he uses in the autograph score, placing the work in a world of apparent lightheartedness, and even ironic detachment. Unusually for the composer, the primary focus of the work is on the slow second movement, the Ballata. This is based on a song that Stenhammar had learned as a child: the tragicomical ballad of the knight Finn Komfusenfej, whose wooing of a noble maiden proves highly complicated - and in the end fatal. Wide-ranging both in substance and in musical character, the Ballata is framed by three briefer movements which all in different ways play with elements of the quartets of Viennese Classicism, by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Stenhammar thus distances himself from late-Romantic conventions - a development which is carried even further in his sixth and final work in the genre. Here 'Romantic' melodies and hovering Impressionist sonorities confront each other and are ultimately synthesized to form a single sound world, while Stenhammar's extensive studies of counterpoint enable him to achieve a truly democratic four-part texture. On this second disc of the Stenhammar Quartet's survey, these two late works frame a world premiere recording, namely that of the Quartet in F minor which Stenhammar completed in 1897, but withdrew after a successful first performance in 1898. While describing the quartet's middle movements as 'fresh and joyful', Stenhammar expressed severe doubts regarding the final movement and for a long time harboured the idea of replacing it, before finally giving up on the work. The first modern performance of the quartet took place in 2001, and now the Stenhammar Quartet is offering a wider audience the opportunity to judge for itself.
Stenhammar String Quartet No 5 in C major Op 29 'Serenade', String Quartet No 6 in D minor Op 35 (world premiere recording), String Quartet in F minor
and from BIS website:
After the harmonic and technical audacities of his Fourth String Quartet, Wilhelm Stenhammar evidently felt the need to explore other paths. Thus, in the Fifth Quartet, he makes a new beginning, as indicated by the title ‘Serenade’ that he uses in the autograph score, placing the work in a world of apparent lightheartedness, and even ironic detachment. Unusually for the composer, the primary focus of the work is on the slow second movement, the Ballata. This is based on a song that Stenhammar had learned as a child: the tragicomical ballad of the knight Finn Komfusenfej, whose wooing of a noble maiden proves highly complicated – and in the end fatal. Wide-ranging both in substance and in musical character, the Ballata is framed by three briefer movements which all in different ways play with elements of the quartets of Viennese Classicism, by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Stenhammar thus distances himself from late-Romantic conventions – a development which is carried even further in his sixth and final work in the genre. Here ‘Romantic’ melodies and hovering Impressionist sonorities confront each other and are ultimately synthesized to form a single sound world, while Stenhammar’s extensive studies of counterpoint enable him to achieve a truly democratic four-part texture. On this second disc of the Stenhammar Quartet’s survey, these two late works frame a world première recording, namely that of the Quartet in F minor which Stenhammar completed in 1897, but withdrew after a successful first performance in 1898. While describing the quartet’s middle movements as ‘fresh and joyful’, Stenhammar expressed severe doubts regarding the final movement and for a long time harboured the idea of replacing it, before finally giving up on the work. The first modern performance of the quartet took place in 2001, and now the Stenhammar Quartet is offering a wider audience the opportunity to judge for itself.
Stenhammar – String Quartets, Volume 2 - Buy It HERE at Amazon
String Quartet No.5 in C major, Op.29 (‘Serenade’) (c.1910)
1. I. Allegro molto con spirito 5'13
2. II. Ballata. Allegretto scherzando (paraphrase on ‘Finn Komfusenfej’) 7'29
3. III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace 1'58
4. IV. Finale. Allegro molto 4'15
String Quartet in F minor (1897) - world première recording
5. I. Allegro 6'14
6. II. Adagio. Con intimissimo sentimento, poco scherzando 6'29
7. III. Allegro giocoso 3'52
8. IV. Allegretto 4'04
String Quartet No.6 in D minor, Op.35 (1916)
9. I. Tempo moderato, sempre un poco rubato 7'12
10. II. Allegro vivace 2'44
11. III. Poco adagio 8'08
12. IV. Presto 6'00
No comments:
Post a Comment