Niziol Quartett - Juon / String Quartets : String Quartets - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Juon,Paul / Sarastro Quartett - Complete String Quartets [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/08/2016

In this recording of Alexander Zemlinsky's (1871-1942) complete String Quartets, the Brodsky Quartet gives fresh life to the composer's works, 'with a spirit so transformational you felt they were actually improving the world', as reported by the Strad after a recent concert performance. The four string quartets represent a journey through Zemlinsky's musical thought. The Brahmsian, youthful Quartet in A, op. 4 is generously proportioned and less earnest in mood than some earlier works. The Second Quartet, op. 15 echoes the composer's years of emotional crisis. Contrastingly, the Third Quartet, op. 19 appears to be a sarcastic protest against modernism, Zemlinsky exploiting a minimum of material to maximum effect. Having been blacklisted and his music declared 'degenerate', the Fourth Quartet, op. 25 (1936) only achieved it's first public performance in 1967. It deploys a wealth of thematic ideas in a process of continual variation and metamorphosis that follows the outlines of sonata form. The String Quartet in E minor failed to pass it's trial at the Viennese Tonkunstlerverein when first presented in 1893. Not published until 1997, it appears here on disc for the first time.

The composers whose music is featured on the present album lived and worked in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars, and their fates were afflicted by the monstrous Nazi regime. Viktor Ullmann, who before WWII held the post of Kapellmeister at the New German Theatre, wrote Quartet No. 3 while he was detained at the Theresienstadt ghetto-camp. Hans Krása completed the Theme and Variations in 1936, yet he only saw it performed in Theresienstadt, along with his children's opera Brundibár. Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces reveal his zest for rhythm and dance, as well as his evidently having been inspired by the music of the Viennese salons, Italy and Spain. Pavel Haas's Quartet No. 2, dating from 1925, serves as vivid proof of the claim that the composer was the most gifted pupil of Leoš Janácek. In October 1944, Haas, Ullmann and Krása were among the thousands of Theresienstadt prisoners transported to Auschwitz, where they would be murdered in the gas chambers. The Bennewitz Quartet launched their international career following their victories at the prestigious competition in Osaka (2005) and the Prémio Paolo Borciani in Italy (2008). Ever since they have regularly performed at the world's most prominent venues and festivals. The music of the Theresienstadt composers has found in them splendid performers.