SKU: HL.49017839
ISBN 9790220130632. 9.0x12.0x0.104 inches.
Duddell's short string quartet made up of four mere bagatelles is a treat for both players and audiences. First performed by the Psophos Quartet at the 2007 Presteigne Festival and recently transcribed for string orchestra, Duddell embraces the historical weight of the prestigious string quartet medium by alluding to a wealth of masterpieces by Mozart, Stravinsky, Debussy, Beethoven, Tippett and Webern. Despite these acknowledged references, the music is still distinctly Duddell's, with catchy melodic lines, tender harmonies and rhythmic energy. This is a fantastic new work for young quartets interested in new repertoire.
SKU: HL.49019413
ISBN 9790001176477. UPC: 841886016729.
The composer Johanna Senfter (1879 1961) from Oppenheim concerned herself with chamber music for strings all her life, even studied violin in Frankfurt herself. Max Reger then gave her lessons in Leipzig, first privately, then in his composition class at the conservatoire and valued her 'extraordinary compositional talent'. The strict teacher more and more became a committed promoter of the works by Johanna Senfter. For a period of 50 years, the composer concerned herself with the string quartet genre, from Quartet No. 1 in D minor Op. 4, composed shortly after the turn of the century, to the sixth and last Quartet in C minor Op. 115 which was performed for the first time in 1960, one year before her death. The Quartet in F sharp minor Op. 28 is her second quartet which was premiered in Darmstadt on 5 November 1922. In this work, as in later works, Senfter combined traditional form models - here Baroque movements like gavotte, saraband, gigue - with expressive, late Romantic musical language. The work, consisting of six short movements, may without doubt be regarded as a valuable addition to the quartet repertoire.
SKU: PR.14440385S
UPC: 680160029907.
A shorter and less stringent work than my two previous quartets (1992 and 1994), the Fourth Quartet is comprised, almost obsessively, of the interplay between two thematic kernels: (1) a 5-note motto, announced at the outset, derived from pitches in my own name; and (2) a brief legato line of expressive sevenths (minor/major), which is itself born out of the first cell. Both of these fragments constantly pervade the entire work, albeit in ever-changing raiment. The piece is extremely classical in design: four movements played without interruption - slow/fast/slow/fast - with the first and third sections alternating declamatory and calmer gestures, and the second and fourth being, in effect, almost variants of each other. Quartet No. 4 is approximately 20 minutes in duration and each movement, as noted, was written in memory of dear friends who passed away during late 1995 and early 1996. The work was completed in April of 1996 in Ormond, Florida and Fairport, New York. --Sydney Hodkinson.A shorter and less stringent work than my two previous quartets (1992 and 1994), the Fourth Quartet is comprised, almost obsessively, of the interplay between two thematic kernels: (1) a 5-note motto, announced at the outset, derived from pitches in my own name; and (2) a brief legato line of expressive sevenths (minor/major), which is itself born out of the first cell. Both of these fragments constantly pervade the entire work, albeit in ever-changing raiment.The piece is extremely classical in design: four movements played without interruption – slow/fast/slow/fast – with the first and third sections alternating declamatory and calmer gestures, and the second and fourth being, in effect, almost variants of each other.Quartet No. 4 is approximately 20 minutes in duration and each movement, as noted, was written in memory of dear friends who passed away during late 1995 and early 1996. The work was completed in April of 1996 in Ormond, Florida and Fairport, New York.—Sydney Hodkinson.
SKU: HL.49045994
The composition of Krzysztof Penderecki's four string quartets is marked by an idiosyncratic interruption: the first two experimental, improvisatory quartets were composed in swift succession in the 1960s. The third and fourth quartets followed substantially later, but were also written in relatively quick succession in the years 2008 and 2016. The quartet cycle as a whole is exemplary of the composerÂ’s two extensive creative phases, thus displaying a stylistic change that is in a class of its own in the history of music. The very short unnumbered quartet Der unterbrochene Gedanke [The Broken Thought], written 1988 in the middle of the 'quartet break', appears as an only too apt commentary.
