Classical and Modern Music
Format: CD
Code: 111075
EAN: 3838898111075
GODALNI KVARTET TARTINI - TARTINI STRING QUARTET
Miran Kolbl, First violin,
Romeo Drucker, Second violin,
Aleksandar Milošev, Viola,
Miloš Mlejnik, Cello
After 25 years of artistic activity (1983- 2008), initially as the string quartet of the Slovenian Philharmonic, and from 1990 onwards performing under the name of Piran’s most famous violinist, the Tartini String Quartet has become renowned in Slovenia its interpretation of chamber music. The excellence of the Quartet’s performances is due to the individual qualities of its members. The Tartini String Quartet brings together superior musicians, acknowledged soloists and highly regarded
professors who each devote their extensive tech- nical knowledge and musical experience to the other distinguished members of the string quartet. In its many years of performing at concert venues, especially as part of the concert series from the cycle Evenings of Chamber Music, the Tartini String Quartet has managed to create a convincing and fresh approach to performance and bold programming. Within the mentioned cycle, over three years (2005-2007) the Quartet performed all the quartets of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. It complements its “standard” concert programme with the creative opus of lesser-known composers, and performs string quartets by local composers of chamber music. With its excellent interpretations, it reveals the value and quality of Slovenian string quartets and through its superb performances encourages Slovenians to create new compositions for the string quartet as an artistic entity. The Tartini String Quartet also invites renowned
Slovenian and foreign musicians as guests, thereby complementing and expanding its concert repertoire and, at the same time, proving to be a flexible and adaptable chamber ensemble. Thus, the Tartini String Quartet has performed with excellent musicians such as: Irena Grafenauer, Stanko Arnold, Radovan Vlatković, Gary Karr, Maria Graf, Franco Gulli, Mate Bekavac, Bruno Giuranna, Rocco Filippini, Giovanni Sollima, Gauthier Capuçon, Lovro Pogorelić, amongst many others. The Tartini String
Quartet has proven its unique creativity with concerts at prestigious concert venues in Barcelona, Venice, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Vienna, Prague, Paris, Salzburg, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Turin, Geneva, and elsewhere around the world. Without doubt, the Tartini String Quartet is a representative Slovenian chamber ensemble and an ambassador of Slovenian culture on both Slovenian and foreign concert stages. In 2001, in recognition of their artistic achievements members of the Tartini String
Quartet received the Prešeren Fund Award; the highest national award for cultural achievement.
COMPOSITIONS:
Dmitri Shostakovich: Opus 110: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor
1. Largo 4.35 (listen!)
2. Allegro molto 2.54
3. Allegretto 4.14
4. Largo 4.59
5. Largo 3.50
Ludwig van Beethoven: Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
6. Adagio, ma non troppo e molto espressivo 5.34
7. Allegro molto vivace 2.46
8. Allegro moderato 0.47
9. Andante, ma non troppo e molto cantabile 13.00
10. Presto 5.14
11. Adagio, quasi un poco andante 2.09
12. Allegro 6.01
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
There are not many composers of the 19th and 20th century who were able to surpass Dmitri Shostakovich in the number of composed string quartets. It is obvious that this noble genre of chamber music presented him with great artistic challenge, since he had written 15 string quartets and an equal number of symphonies. But if we can discern an objective or even official compositional approach to most of his symphonies, then Shostakovich's string quartets
express his subjective artistic stance that is independent of political background. String Quartet No. 8 in C minor (1960) came into existence du- ring Shostakovich's visit of Dresden, a German town which was devastated in the Second World War. The composition is dedicated to the victims of Nazism, so the sombre atmosphere of the quartet doesn't really surprise. The process of writing this piece of music went alongside his participation in the making of the movie “Five Days, Five Nights”, by
writing occasional music for it. Shostakovich admitted that the inspiration for the String Quartet No. 8 came as much from the movie script as from the confessions of the survivors of Nazi overrule and war horrors. The String Quartet No. 8 isn’t only homage to the victims of fascism, but also the author’s attempt at musical autobiography, since he implements a recurring musical motif in all four movements of the string quartet. The motif consists of the notes D, Es, C, H and presents an
anagram of the authors name (D. SCHostakovich in German spelling). This motif was later recurrently used in many of his works. String Quartet No. 8 is also the first work where Shostakovich decided to quote musical thoughts from his earlier pieces (Symphony No. 1, No. 5, No. 10 and No. 11, Piano Trio No. 1 and the opera Katerina Izmailova), which even strengthens the autobiographical nature of the quartet. This string quartet premiered on October 2, 1960, and the reprise followed a week later
in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
It’s no coincidence that the late String Quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven (Opus 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 and 135) are so rarely preformed on stage, since they demand mature performing musicians as well as extreme concentration from the audience’s part. It is possible that the individual movements of these string quartets please the listener upon first hearing, but their beauty and mu- sical maturity are fully disclosed only to a
great music enthusiast who delves meticulously into the musical architecture of the quartet and who imprints even the smallest musical pattern into his musical consciousness. The series of Beethoven’s late String Quartets were considered as unperformable, grotesque and cacophonous for a long time. Harmonic, rhythmic and contrapuntal musical speech is daring and the particular bits of the musical thematic are shifting and transforming, until they finally make up an organic entirety. “In these
quartets, you shall find a completely new approach to composing,” Beethoven communicated to his friend Holzer via mail. “This is the music of the future.” Truly, the musical sentence of the late String Quartets by Beethoven surpasses even the imagination of the greatest musical experts of the early 19th century; incredible modulations, unusual harmonies, rigid intervals, harsh emphasis…music that can be created only by an artist, who, like Beethoven, has been isolated from everyday life by
his fatal deafness, an artist who has been expelled from the world that surrounded him and therefore he listened to inner voices that drew his tragic life towards genial artistic achievements. Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor was composed in 1826 and is dedicated to Baron Joseph von Stutterheim. It is quite unusual for a string quartet, since it consists of 7 movements. The introductory Adagio is composed in the form of a slow fugue and brings an exceptionally tragic musical
mood so that Richard Wagner remarked on this movement as: “the most melancholy sentiment ever expressed in music.” In contrast to the dusky mood of the first movement stands the cheerful second movement Allegro molto vivace, followed by the short Allegro moderato. The fourth and also the central movement is the extensive Andante ma non troppo in the form of theme with variations. “A vision of grace,” as Wagner referred to this movement. After the cheerful Presto follows the short Adagio which
serves as a slow and sombre introduction to the quintets heroic finishing Allegro. Opus 131 is a compositi- on that demands an extremely attentive listener. Opus 131: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor has been excellently marked by an outstanding chamber musician, who has admitted that he had been playing this particular string quartet for 30 years before he truly felt what Ludwig van Beethoven wanted to express with it.
Roman Leskovic
