Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.) See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Signum Quartett play Bartók, Berg & Schnittke
The latest release by the Signum Quartett showcases music written during the 20th century. Berg, Bartók and Schnittke all took different approaches in their quest to further the development of the string quartet and this makes for an interesting and varied programme. | 
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| |  | Schubert & Berg: String Quartets
Schubert’s late masterpiece for string quartet, his 15th and final quartet in G major D887, was composed in 1826. Although the first movement was performed at a Vienna Musikverein concert devoted to his music, he couldn’t find anyone to publish it. It displays an almost Beethovenian profundity, and is a dramatic departure from the two previous song-based quartets that had proved popular. The writing is assured and the harmonies audacious. It is a dark, rather introverted work, full of passionate outbursts and drama. Berg’s Quartet op.3 was premiered in 1911 towards the end of his studies with Schoenberg. It was badly received and baffled listeners and performers alike. Like the Schubert G major, it displays daring harmonies and a remarkable technical assurance. This CD is the Kuss Quartet’s debut on ONYX. They are regular performers at the Edinburgh and Salzburg festivals, and also perform regularly in New York, London and their home city of Berlin. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Jean-François Heisser (piano), Jean-François Heisser (piano), Péter Csaba (violin) Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, Vladimír Válek | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Tokyo String Quartet: Quartet Recital 1971
The 44-year-old history of the Tokyo String Quartet, one of the best quartets in the world, comes to an end in June, 2013. The Quartet has decided that due to the retirement of two of its members, the entire ensemble would disband after 44 successful years. A certain sense of nostalgia definitely appears when hearing the music on this recording. | 
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Berg: Violin Concerto & Lulu Suite
Alban Berg (1885-1935) is, arguably, the most approachable of the three great serialist composers who were working in Vienna at the turn of the century – Schoenberg and Webern being the other two. Of the three, it was Berg whose technique was less stringently atonal: his music has a romantic lyricism that is largely absent from the later music of his two friends. This is no better illustrated than in his last work, the gorgeously wistful Violin Concerto of 1935, a work that is dedicated 'To the Memory of an Angel' – the angel being the recently deceased 18-year-old, Manon Gropius, daughter of the Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius and Mahler's surviving widow Alma. The other works in this set help to make it the perfect introduction to Berg's music, from the Suite from his notorious opera Lulu to the beautiful Lyric Suite and the early lyricism of the Seven Early Songs. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Berg - Complete Chamber Music
Pierre Woudenberg (clarinet), Bob Zimmerman (harmonium) & Sepp Grotenhuis (piano) Schoenberg Quartet This disc of Berg’s complete output for chamber music was originally issued by Chandos in 2001, as part of the Schoenberg Quartet’s traversal of all the chamber music written by the Second Viennese School. It included many rarities and arrangements – here, for instance, is the only currently available recording of Berg’s own transcription of the last of his early and passionate Altenberg-Lieder for a quartet of piano, harmonium, violin and cello, made for performance at an influential private musical society, established by Schoenberg in 1900 in order to play and promote the revolutionary music of himself, his friends and associates, away from the catcalls of the conservative Viennese public. This disc contains some of the most heartfelt and openly passionate music from a musical school often regarded as forbidding and abstract. “The Lyric Suite is among the crowning works of modern quartet literature, and the Schoenberg Quartet has the measure of its diverse moods and twin-track trajectory of increasing dynamism and emotional intensity.” Gramophone Magazine | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Berg: | String Quartet, Op. 3 The String Quartet, Op. 3, completed in 1910, is both a graduation exercise and also the composer’s first extended foray into the non-tonal regions that were then being explored by Schoenberg and Webern Lyric Suite - for string quartet (1926) Berg’s highly expressive Lyric Suite, inspired by his love-affair with the wife of a family friend, is notable for its unconventional six-movement form, the odd-numbered of which become progressively faster and more disruptive, while the even numbered ones become progressively slower and more intense. | Wolf, H: | Italian Serenade in G major Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade is a lighthearted piece later orchestrated as the first movement of a larger suite. |
“…as you listen to these works afresh, you not only marvel at the individual players' virtuosity, but you also have to appreciate that the relatively warm yet pleasingly "edgy" quality to the sound and the oneness of spirit in the interpretations come from the highest-order functioning of the well-integrated collective parts of a mature, vital body--that is, a string quartet that's been together a long time, each member sharing life and breath in the music they make together… you shouldn't miss this extraordinary recording.” Classics Today | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Webern / Schoenberg / Berg
Manfred Quartet with Marieke Koster (soprano) | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Berg - Complete Chamber Music
Pierre Woudenberg (clarinet), Bob Zimmerman (harmonium), Sepp Grotenhuis (piano) Schoenberg Quartet | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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