Hindemith, et al. - HINDEMITH ‘Artist & Educator’: 41 Pieces for 2 violins from ‘Geigen-Schulwerk’; Sonatas for solo violin, op. 31 nos. 1–2. Ida Bieler (vln), Georg Sarkisjan (vln 2). Coviello Contemporary COV61114. - ‘Icelandic String Quartets’. PÁLSSON: Theme with Variations and Fugue. NORDAL: From Dream to Dream. HAUKUR TÓMASSON: A Long Shadow. MAGNÚSSON: String Quartet No 21. 1Stefania Ólafsdóttir (vla). Ethos String Quartet. Smekkleysa SKM65. - PENDERECKI: String Trio; String Quartets Nos. 1–3; Der unterbrochene Gedanke for string quartet; Clarinet Quintet1. 1Arkadiusz Adamski (cl), DAFÔ String Quartet. Dux 0770. - PISTON: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 & 5. Harlem String Quartet. Naxos 8.559630. - POHJOLA: String Quartets Nos. 1–4. Kamus String Quartet. Alba SACD ABCD 334. - ‘Bow 56’. OLOFFSON: Higgs Boson: Capriccio for string sextet and electronics. PARMERUD: String Quintet No 1. HÅKAN LARSSON: Marks, for string quintet. ANDERS NILSSON: Host, for string sextet. Uppsala Chamber Soloists. Phono Suecia PSCD 190.

Tempo ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (264) ◽  
pp. 87-92
Author(s):  
Guy Rickards
Tempo ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (225) ◽  
pp. 39-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Conway

Michael Berkeley's choral and operatic successes have tended to obscure his accomplishments in the field of chamber music, which include a serialist String Trio (1978), two String Quartets and a Clarinet Quintet from the 1980s and the string quartet Torque and Velocity (1997). His latest essay in the genre, Abstract Mirror, for string quintet, was premièred on 11 February 2003 at Bishopsgate Hall by the Chilingirian Quartet, with cellist Stephen Orton. The work was a joint commission by the players and the City Music Society.


Tempo ◽  
1959 ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Frederick Rimmer

The four string quartets* of Bloch are a convenient medium for assessing both the strength and weakness of his unusual talent, revealing, as they do, an imperfect endowment of those processes of thought and feeling from which, in the right amalgam, a masterpiece of musical expression can emerge. Only the second quartet represents him at his best. It is one of the few works where inspiration and emotion are under the control of the intellect. There are weaknesses in the other quartets largely brought about by preoccupation with cyclic procedures—a notorious and dangerous expedient for a composer unable by nature to accept the traditional usages and disciplines of sonata form.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gjertrud Pedersen

Symphonies Reframed recreates symphonies as chamber music. The project aims to capture the features that are unique for chamber music, at the juncture between the “soloistic small” and the “orchestral large”. A new ensemble model, the “triharmonic ensemble” with 7-9 musicians, has been created to serve this purpose. By choosing this size range, we are looking to facilitate group interplay without the need of a conductor. We also want to facilitate a richness of sound colours by involving piano, strings and winds. The exact combination of instruments is chosen in accordance with the features of the original score. The ensemble setup may take two forms: nonet with piano, wind quartet and string quartet (with double bass) or septet with piano, wind trio and string trio. As a group, these instruments have a rich tonal range with continuous and partly overlapping registers. This paper will illuminate three core questions: What artistic features emerge when changing from large orchestral structures to mid-sized chamber groups? How do the performers reflect on their musical roles in the chamber ensemble? What educational value might the reframing unfold? Since its inception in 2014, the project has evolved to include works with vocal, choral and soloistic parts, as well as sonata literature. Ensembles of students and professors have rehearsed, interpreted and performed our transcriptions of works by Brahms, Schumann and Mozart. We have also carried out interviews and critical discussions with the students, on their experiences of the concrete projects and on their reflections on own learning processes in general. Chamber ensembles and orchestras are exponents of different original repertoire. The difference in artistic output thus hinges upon both ensemble structure and the composition at hand. Symphonies Reframed seeks to enable an assessment of the qualities that are specific to the performing corpus and not beholden to any particular piece of music. Our transcriptions have enabled comparisons and reflections, using original compositions as a reference point. Some of our ensemble musicians have had first-hand experience with performing the original works as well. Others have encountered the works for the first time through our productions. This has enabled a multi-angled approach to the three central themes of our research. This text is produced in 2018.


10.31022/c042 ◽  
1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leopold Kozeluch

Kozeluch, Mozart's greatest rival in Vienna, published his only string quartets in 1790 and 1792, at a time when he was being described by the lexicographer Gerber as “the most loved among living composers.” A study of these works offers much-needed insights into this significant composer, the string quartet genre, and the fascinating decade that saw the musical shift from classicism to romanticism.


1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol L. Krumhansl

This study examines possible parallels between large-scale organization in music and discourse structure. Two experiments examine the psychological reality of topics in the first movements of W. A. Mozart's String Quintet No. 3 in C major, K. 515, and L. van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132. Listeners made real-time judgments on three continuous scales: memorability, openness, and amount of emotion. All three kinds of judgments could be accounted for by the topics identified in these pieces by Agawu (1991) independently of the listeners' musical training. The results showed hierarchies of topics. However, these differed for the three tasks and for the two pieces. The topics in the Mozart piece appear to function as a way of establishing the musical form, whereas the topics in the Beethoven piece are more strongly associated with emotional content.


Tempo ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (228) ◽  
pp. 68-69
Author(s):  
Paul Conway

In a project that will be completed in 2007, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has been commissioned by the Naxos recording company to write ten string quartets. Large-scale ambitions already realized, the intimacy of chamber music offers an opportunity not only to consolidate but also to probe and quest with the precision of scaled-down forces. It is timely, then, to be reminded that, although it has not been a major preoccupation such as opera, concerto and symphony writing, the quartet form has drawn from him some significant examples evincing an original approach. A recent Metier release usefully gathers together on one disc all Max's works for string quartet prior to the Naxos series. In these persuasive recordings, the members of the Kreutzer Quartet display a keen understanding of the individual character of each piece, the circumstances of its creation and the purpose for which it was intended.


Tempo ◽  
1990 ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Bret Johnson

Fifteen years ago, Nicolas Slonimsky wrote of Benjamin Lees in Tempo: ‘At a time when so many otherwise valiant composers are star-crossed and complain of malign neglect, Benjamin Lees rises “in excelsis” in the musical firmament’. And so he has continued since, with many commissions and numerous major works to his credit, matched by frequent performances in the United States. It is a time that has seen the creation of his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, a set of Variations for Piano and Orchestra, a Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra, a Double Concerto for Piano, Cello and Orchestra, at least four other orchestral compositions of substantial scale, and the Third and Fourth String Quartets. All of these have contributed to his continuing high profile in the American musical scene. When one surveys Lees's entire corpus of music over the last four decades, one sees an impressive range of works, achievements and awards. Such pieces as the Violin Concerto (1958), Third Symphony (1969) and Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (1965), all commercially recorded, stand out as landmarks not only of his own music but of postwar American music generally. His style has continued to evolve in recent years and whilst his hallmark is still his adherence to form and structure, he has become more concerned with orchestral sonority and, without becoming explicitly programmatic, practises his art within an ever-widening sound spectrum and colouristic palette. He has always possessed a strongly individual personality, and the ‘Lees Sound’ is unquestionably unique, even through his exposition and development of musical ideas-and the technique of continual evolution which he favours at present-derive, at source, from his most important early musical teacher: George Antheil.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (93) ◽  
pp. 20131125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan M. Wing ◽  
Satoshi Endo ◽  
Adrian Bradbury ◽  
Dirk Vorberg

Control of relative timing is critical in ensemble music performance. We hypothesize that players respond to and correct asynchronies in tone onsets that arise from fluctuations in their individual tempos. We propose a first-order linear phase correction model and demonstrate that optimal performance that minimizes asynchrony variance predicts a specific value for the correction gain. In two separate case studies, two internationally recognized string quartets repeatedly performed a short excerpt from the fourth movement of Haydn's quartet Op. 74 no. 1, with intentional, but unrehearsed, expressive variations in timing. Time series analysis of successive tone onset asynchronies was used to estimate correction gains for all pairs of players. On average, both quartets exhibited near-optimal gain. However, individual gains revealed contrasting patterns of adjustment between some pairs of players. In one quartet, the first violinist exhibited less adjustment to the others compared with their adjustment to her. In the second quartet, the levels of correction by the first violinist matched those exhibited by the others. These correction patterns may be seen as reflecting contrasting strategies of first-violin-led autocracy versus democracy. The time series approach we propose affords a sensitive method for investigating subtle contrasts in music ensemble synchronization.


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
James William Sobaskie

The later music of Franz Schubert confers a remarkable blend of impact and intimacy. Some masterpieces, such asDie schöne MüllerinandWinterreise, capture striking images of despair and loneliness. Others, such as the String Quartet in A minor, the Piano Trio in E major and the String Quintet in C major, carry stirring impressions of struggle culminated by success. Yet all captivate us with sensitivity and sincerity, the products of considerable self-investment.


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