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COMPACT DISC 1
BÉLA BARTÓK
Complete String Quartets
String Quartet No.1, Op.7, BB 52 (1908-09)
30:53
1.
I
Lento -
9:33
2.
II
Poco a poco accelerando - Allegretto - Molto quieto -
9:20
3.
(Introduzione.) Allegro - Meno vivo - Allegro - Meno vivo - Molto adagio -
12:00
Allegro vivace - Adagio - Più adagio -
String Quartet No.3, BB 93 (1927)
15:07
Deciated to the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia
Prima parte
4.
Moderato - Quasi a tempo, tranquillo - Tempo I - Sostenuto -
4:32
Seconda parte
5.
Allegro - Più mosso - Tempo I - Più mosso -
5:31
Ricapitulazione della prima parte
6.
Moderato - Meno mosso - Più lento - Lento -
3:09
Coda
7.
Allegro molto - Meno vivo
1:53
String Quartet No.5, BB 110 (1934)
30:49
Deciated to Mrs Sprague Coolidge
8.
Allegro - [ ] - Tempo I - Meno mosso - Tempo I - Più mosso -
7:44
9.
Adagio molto - Un poco più andante - Tempo I - Più lento -
5:37
10.
Scherzo. Alla bulgarese (vivace) - Trio. Accelerando al Vivacissimo -
4:55
11.
Andante - [ ] - Più andante - Più lento - Più mosso, agitato -
5:10
12.
Fianle. Allegro vivace - Presto - Poco sostenuto - Più presto, scorrevole -
7:02
Total time: 77:03
COMPACT DISC 2
String Quartet No.2, Op.17, BB 75 (1915-17)
27:43
Au Quatuor Hongrois Waldbauer, Temesváry, Kornstein, Kerpely
1.
I
Moderato - Poco più mosso - Meno mosso - Sostenuto -
10:07
2.
II
Allegro molto capriccioso - [ ] - Tempo I - Allegro molto - Tranquillo - Prestissimo -
8:12
3.
III
Lento - Un poco più andante - Tempo I - [ ] - Tempo I -
9:16
String Quartet No.4, BB 95 (1928)
24:02
Au Quatuor Pro Arte
4.
I
Allegro - Più mosso - Pesante
6:03
5.
II
Prestissimo, con sordino
2:59
6.
III
Non troppo lento - Poco agitato - Tempo I - Agitato - Tempo I - Tranquillo
5:58
7.
IV
Allegretto pizzicato - Un poco più mosso -
2:59
8.
V
Allegro molto - Più vivo - Meno mosso - Pesante
5:47
String Quartet No.6, BB 119 (1939)
30:58
Dedicated to the Kolisch Quartet
9.
I
Mesto - Più mosso, pesante - Vivace - Un poco meno vivo - Vivacissimo, agitato -
7:50
10.
II
Mesto - Marcia - Risoluto - Tempo I - Meno mosso - Ancora meno mosso -
8:23
11.
III
Mesto - Burletta. Moderato - Un poco più mosso - Tempo I - Andantino -
7:19
12.
IV
Mesto - Più andante - Molto tranquillo - Tempo I - Più andante - Tempo I
7:13
Total time: 83:03
Chamber: Arcadia Quartet
Ana Török violin
Rasvan Dumitru violin
Traian Boala viola
Zsolt Török cello
Bonus track (available to download only, free at www.chandos.net; enter code: bartok25)
Romanian Folk Dances, BB 68 (1915): 5:13
Arranged for String Quartet by Dan Variu
26-29 September 2017 (String Quartets Nos 3-5) and 4-7 April 2018 (String Quartets Nos 1,2 and 6)
Notes
For its very first recording on Chandos, the Arcadia String Quartet presents what has been at the very heart of its musical career and influences: the complete string quartets by Bartók.
With the music of the Hungarian composer, the members of this Romanian ensemble, neighbours of his birthplace, have won such major career-shaping competitions as Osaka, the Wigmore Hall, and Hamburg.
Bartók’s attachment to the string quartet – as to no other genre – was to the keystone of the Viennese tradition, but with the aim of moving the medium out of its native city a little, into the countryside of alternative tonalities and rhythms. The six mature works he wrote are being revealed here with all the singular patterns, mixed modalities, bitterness, lamentations, and, at times, bright folk influences which they contain.
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Reviews
“This is an excellent set of the Bartók String Quartets …” ****
Tully Potter – ClassicalSource.com – 14 January 2019
“…This is wonderfully imaginative playing – a more relaxed approach than the high-tension of some recent rivals. The expansive tempi allow room for savouring some extraordinary textures and sonorities, letting sounds resonate and hang in the air. Their lovely tonal blend, captured in a typical Chandos warm acoustic, is in the classic East-European soft-grained tradition but doesn’t sugarcoat these modernist icons. The primal savagery is conveyed with foot-stamping energy and earthy colours, while melancholia and wistful longing pervade the atmospheric slow movements…” ****
Warwick Arnold – Limelightmagazine.com.au – 8 January 2019
“…a compelling and very beautiful cycle that elbows its way to a place at the crowded top table.”
Roy Westerbrook – MusicWeb-International.com – 31 December 2018
Recording of the Month
“…This is an excellent recording, one which I will be revisiting regularly, and one which is quickly becoming my go-to recording of the works.”
Stuart Sillitoe – MusicWeb-International.com – November 2018
***** (Superb Album) Sound: 3.5/5
Patrick Szersnovicz – Diapason magazine (France) – December 2018
*****
Jeremie Bigorie – Classica magazine (France) – December 2018-January 2019
Performance **** Recording ****
“…a beautifully balanced performance.”
John Allison – BBC Music magazine – Christmas Issue 2018
“… if I was asked to recommend a Bartók cycle to a first-time listener intimidated by his spiky reputation, I’d send them straight to the Arcadia Quartet. Even for the aficionado, this spacious, big-hearted vision of Bartók as poet, dreamer and humourist has something distinctive to say.”
Richard Bratby – Gramophone magazine – November 2018
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