Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 51 'Seven Last Words'

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This reading is alert not only to musical texture, but to the modulating phrase and the dramaturgy of key changes between movements. The playing is limpid and subtly coloured, sparing of vibrato... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: 4617802
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 66 minutes

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Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 51 'Seven Last Words'

Work length1:06:06

$7.65

$10.35

Rosamunde Quartett (string quartet), Andreas Reiner (violin), Simon Fordham (violin), Helmut Nicolai (viola), Anja Lechner (cello)
Recorded: 2000-05-31
Recording Venue: Festeburgkirche, Frankfurt/Main

1. Introduzione (Maestoso ed Adagio)

Track length6:08

$0.85

$1.15

2. Sonata I (Largo)

Track length6:39

$0.85

$1.15

3. Sonata II (Grave e Cantabile)

Track length9:14

$0.85

$1.15

4. Sonata III (Grave)

Track length9:21

$0.85

$1.15

5. Sonata IV (Largo)

Track length8:17

$0.85

$1.15

6. Sonata V (Adagio)

Track length8:02

$0.85

$1.15

7. Sonata VI (Lento)

Track length8:25

$0.85

$1.15

8. Sonata VII (Largo)

Track length8:01

$0.85

$1.15

9. Il Terremoto (Presto e con tutta la forza)

Track length1:59

$0.85

$1.15

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

This reading is alert not only to musical texture, but to the modulating phrase and the dramaturgy of key changes between movements. The playing is limpid and subtly coloured, sparing of vibrato (in that respect the Rosamunde are heedful of various period-instrument models) and, at the beginning of the third movement, suspended in a sense of rapture. Another imaginative aspect of this performance is the way it reflects the sense of the text, just as Haydn does in those movements that seem to follow the pattern of the words he set. This feeling of narrative is especially keen in the fourth movement, 'Woman, behold thy son!' and the closing 'Earthquake'.
The list of virtues is fairly simple to enumerate: variety and refinement of tone, internal clarity, historical awareness, imagination and a certain poise that not all its rivals can claim in equal measure.
It serves well as a compromise between period-instrument clarity and modern-instrument warmth. Against strong competition its fuller instrumental sonority is marginally to be preferred. A first-rate CD of a wonderful score.

Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 51 'Seven Last Words'

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