Beethoven, Bruckner, Hartmann & Holliger: String Quartets

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a typically stimulating and warmly engineered collection of works. They open with a probing account of Beethoven's last String Quartet...the Scherzo and Finale are projected with great exuberance...The... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 21st Oct 2013
Catalogue No: 4763942
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 94 minutes

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Beethoven: String Quartet In F, Op. 135

Work length22:07

$3.40

$4.60

Zehetmair Quartett (string quartet), Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Kuba Jakowicz (violin), Ruth Killius (viola), Ursula Smith (cello)
Recorded: 2012
Recording Venue: Radio Studio DRS, Zürich

1. Allegretto

Track length5:52

$0.85

$1.15

2. Vivace

Track length3:19

$0.85

$1.15

3. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo

Track length6:27

$0.85

$1.15

4. Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß (Grave - Allegro - Grave ma non troppo tratto - Allegro)

Track length6:29

$0.85

$1.15

Bruckner: Streichquartett c-Moll WAB 111

Work length21:57

$3.40

$4.60

Zehetmair Quartett (string quartet), Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Kuba Jakowicz (violin), Ruth Killius (viola), Ursula Smith (cello)
Recorded: 2012
Recording Venue: Radio Studio DRS, Zürich

1. Allegro moderato

Track length8:20

$0.85

$1.15

2. Andante

Track length6:42

$0.85

$1.15

3. Scherzo: Presto - Trio

Track length3:13

$0.85

$1.15

4. Rondo: Schnell

Track length3:42

$0.85

$1.15

Hartmann, K: Streichquartett Nr. 2

Work length50:19

$3.40

$4.60

Zehetmair Quartett (string quartet), Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Matthias Metzger (violin), Kuba Jakowicz (violin), Ruth Killius (viola), Ursula Smith (cello), Francoise Groben (cello)
Recorded: 2012
Recording Venue: Radio Studio DRS, Zürich

1. Langsam - Äußerst lebhaft und sehr energisch

Track length9:45

$0.85

$1.15

2. Andantino (Sehr ausdrucksvoll)

Track length10:08

$0.85

$1.15

3. Presto

Track length6:21

$0.85

$1.15

Streichquartett Nr. 2 (2007)

Track length24:05

$0.85

$1.15

About
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About

The Zehetmair Quartet, one of the most exciting and accomplished string quartets of our time, plays a programme of characteristically broad reach, ranging from Beethoven and Bruckner to Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Heinz Holliger. The 50th anniversary of Hartmann’s death falls in December 2013, and Holliger’s Second String Quartet is a composition written for the Zehetmair group and premiered by them in 2008.

This double album begins with Beethoven’s highly-concentrated opus 135, and concludes with the “explosions of fantasy” of Holliger’s quartet, recorded on CD for the first time.

Bruckner’s rarely-heard C minor Quartet is, as Thomas Zehetmair notes, both touching and warm-hearted. These three pieces - the Beethoven, Bruckner and Holliger quartets - were recorded in Zurich 2010.

The String Quartet No. 2 by Karl Amadeus Hartmann - “a large-scale nostalgic drama, full of wisdom” - was recorded in 2002 by an earlier quartet line-up, and this interpretation is previously unreleased. It was the last of the Zehetmair Quartet recordings to feature cellist and founding member Françoise Groben (1965-2011). “Her energy and creativity were crucial to our development an early successes. This new production is dedicated to her memory.”

The Zehetmair Quartet was founded in 1994 but did not make its first concert tour until 1998. The Quartet’s first recording - a pairing of Bartók Fourth Quartet and Hartmann’s String Quartet No 1 - was released by ECM in 2000 and won the quarterly German Record Critics’ Prize. Their celebrated 2004 album of Schumann’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 3 was named Gramophone’s Record of the Year and won several other awards including the Diapason d’Or and the Edison Classical Music Award (Netherlands). A 2007 ECM release coupled quartets by Bartók and Paul Hindemith.

Reviews

January 2014

a typically stimulating and warmly engineered collection of works. They open with a probing account of Beethoven's last String Quartet...the Scherzo and Finale are projected with great exuberance...The Zehetmairs deliver a committed performance that could hardly be bettered in terms of its range of colour and nuance.

January 2014

Both the earlier works are characteristically focus-driven and full of light...Both [the Hartmann and the Holliger] make great sense in the Zehetmair's hands, creating a theatre of voices out of their instruments for the Holliger, while the shadow of Shostakovich looms over the Hartmann

31st October 2013

They play both the later quartets quite wonderfully, with extraordinary refinement and command, but the two earlier ones are much less convincing. Performances that would perhaps have seemed spontaneous and fresh in the concert hall appear fussy and overworked on disc.

The Independent on Sunday 3rd November 2013

[The Hartmann] is an abrasive response to the Second World War...Holliger’s String Quartet No 2, dedicated to Elliott Carter and written for the Zehetmair, applies a thin layer of vocal keening to a mysterious soundworld and ends this stupendous musical journey, skilfully navigated.

Beethoven, Bruckner, Hartmann & Holliger: String Quartets

2 CDs

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