Notes and Editorial Reviews
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
The Haydn and Dvo?ák are always good to hear, again, but the Fourth String Quartet of Grazyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) is a welcome surprise. She was an excellent composer and violinist, studying the latter with the highly critical Flesch, before winning third place at the first Wieniawski Competition in 1935 behind Ginette Neveu and David Oistrakh. She wrote seven string quartets in all, and this one won first prize at the 1951 International Composer’s Competition in Liège. It is an interesting work, particularly in its first two movements: prime examples of Bacewicz’s neo-Romantic style, incorporating stylistic elements from
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Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and structural ones from Bartók. After those two searching and powerful pieces, however, the finale is something of a letdown. It feels like it might have been appropriated from an earlier, discarded work, something witty and vibrant in the composer’s neo-Classical years, but lacking in the humanity and approachability of the rest.
As for the Szymanowski Quartet, it was formed in Warsaw in 1995. It’s won a few awards, and has performed over the years at several festivals. Stylistically, the Szymanowskis combine a rich sound I associate with older Czech quartets, such as the original Smetana, with a dig-in intensity and enthusiasm more reminiscent of the Emersons. This can at times create an almost split personality effect, as in the Haydn Adagio, treated to the most exquisite combination of balance and bel canto phrasing, but marred by excessive speed. Similarly, while the Allegro appassionato of Dvo?ák’s first movement has airiness and energy, the second theme is too stiff, lacking rhythmic suppleness. Against these flaws, they work perfectly with one another, as Bacewicz’s Andante and the central portion of the Dvo?ák Scherzo reveal. Much can be forgiven, too, in an ensemble that brings such splendidly deep tone to the chorale-like section of the main theme in the Dvo?ák Scherzo, or such bittersweet ripeness to its pizzicato section.
With good sound and basic notes, this is an auspicious debut album for the Szymanowski Quartet. Would it be too much to hope for a Bacewicz cycle from them, and perhaps the pair of quartets by their namesake?
FANFARE: Barry Brenesal
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Works on This Recording
1.
Quartet for Strings in C major, Op. 54 no 2/H 3 no 57 by Franz Joseph Haydn
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Szymanowski String Quartet
Period: Classical
Written: 1788; Eszterhazá, Hungary
Notes: This selection is a stereo recording.
2.
Quartet for Strings no 4 by Grazyna Bacewicz
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Szymanowski String Quartet
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1951; Poland
Notes: This selection is a stereo recording.
3.
Quartet for Strings no 14 in A flat major, Op. 105/B 193 by Antonín Dvorák
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Szymanowski String Quartet
Period: Romantic
Written: 1895; Bohemia
Notes: This selection is a stereo recording.
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