Dudok Quartet of Amsterdam - Tchaikovsky: Volume 1 - String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Following their acclaimed first installment of Franz Joseph Haydn's six Op. 20 string quartets, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam returns with the remainder of the works from this hugely significant collection - the E-flat major, D major and A major quartets. Earning Haydn the title of the 'father of the string quartet', these works are said to have defined the medium for the next 200 years. It is in his lauded Op. 20, where Haydn connects old and new worlds and creates an all-encompassing universe. The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam is one of the most versatile and appealing string quartets of this time. The quartet's aim is to share the heart of music through captivating performances and an open approach of the audience.

Shostakovich regarded his 3rd String Quartet as one of his best works and initially gave each of the movements titles such as 'blithe ignorance of the future cataclysm' and 'Forces of war unleased', but then withdrew the titles shortly after completing the work. Why he did this we don't know, maybe he was wary of the Soviet authorities reading unpatriotic meanings into them. Whatever the reasons, the 3rd is a powerful statement containing the composer's dry humor, with a good dash of sarcasm, the sinister and the passionate. Saariaho's Terra Memoria, her 2nd String Quartet, bears the subtitle 'for those departed.' The composer said that Inchwe continue to remember those who are no longer with us. Their life is complete, nothing will be added... our experiences of being with them, different aspects of their personality, certain memories haunt our dreams, some remain clear flashes which we can relive.Inch

Performed using gut strings, the Dudok Quartet's Tchaikovsky String Quartet cycle is notable for the 'new' sound world gut strings reveal. There is a raw naturalness to the sound together with an intimacy steel strings cannot match. After completing his 3rd quartet in 1876, Tchaikovsky all but abandoned chamber music, and embarked on a remarkable period of creative output which included the last three symphonies, and the majority of his operas. His only chamber works after the quartets are the piano trio and sextet of 1882 and 1890 respectively and the string quartets date from 1865 for the incomplete B flat work, to 1876 and the final quartet which is the centre piece of this album. The Dudok's arrangements of four of the solo piano works that form The Seasons rounds off this album, and the Dudok's cycle of Tchaikovsky's string quartets.