Szymanowski: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 56

“…Szymanowski's quartets are subtle works that yield up their secrets slowly. The Royals have a special feeling for texture and colour, which is vital in this music, but an equally strong sense of structure. They never drop the lyrical thread of the rapturous middle movement. Their opening of the Second Quartet has a floating, weightless quality, contrasting with the weighty textures that bring to the central Vivace scherzando, where the folksiness of Tatra mountain dances is felt. ..the String Quartet (1916) of Ludomir Rózycki... is a hidden gem... At almost 17 minutes' duration, the first movement is nearly as long as each of Szymanowski's quartets, but Rózycki's high inspiration and the Royals' impeccable playing sustain it.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 *****

“This is what Szymanowski needs: firm, full-boded playing, with a wide range of dynamic, colour and attack, and with all the unexpected twists and turns confidently negotiated.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2009

“[The Royal Quartet] play Szymanowski's two quartets with exactly the right combination of local folksy fervour and the textural variety that their country's most important composer after Chopin shared with his modernist contemporaries. The results are the finest performances of these two compact and luminously intense works currently available.” The Guardian, 27th February 2009 *****

“This is what Szymanowski needs: firm, fullbodied playing, with a wide range of dynamic, colour and attack, and with all the unexpected twists and turns confidently negotiated. The Royal Quartet are as finely tuned to his quirkiness as to his trademark voluptuous post-impressionism and moments of mystic withdrawal or volatile transition. In every way this makes a persuasive bid for best available version.
Ludomir Rózycki was two years younger than Szymanowski, with whom he co-founded the group that came to be known as Young Poland, and he was prominent enough as composer and teacher in Lwów, Warsaw and Katowice to have at least two books written about him. Most highly regarded for his symphonic poems and songs, he wrote his sole string quartet in 1916 during a stay in Paris.
It moves confidently enough within its somewhat impersonal Romantic idiom, occasionally giving off a perfume of Debussy and Ravel, and in the finale even some moments of Bartók. This is a not dissimilar mixture to Szymanowski, in fact, but in far less concentrated form, and at nearly 33 minutes the prospect of a concert-hall breakthrough is rather remote. On CD, however, the piece is more than welcome as a coupling to the Royal's outstanding Szymanowski.
Szymanowski can take a degree more atmosphere in the acoustic than we get here; but the clarity of the recording certain lets the myriad details speak eloquently.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Schoenberg Quartet's reading of the Szymanowski quartets is near ideal. While always expressive, they manage to make superb sense of the composer's contrapuntal writing and seem to relish the more challenging excursions into a surprisingly dissonant sound world in the second quartet.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2007 *****

“The Schoenberg Quartet adds that element of emotional daring which makes all the difference in the world. Outstanding” Gramophone Magazine

“The Goldner Quartet's performances are a model of conviction and insight.” BBC Music Magazine

“The Goldner is one of the world's most industrious quartets, with a hectic tour schedule within native Australia... The programme suits the group's performing style: its ability to produce a microcosm of the subtle shades required for the first of Szymanowski's quartets is matched by the aggressive quality demanded in the second quartet. Rarely can two works from the same composer, written only ten years apart, occupy such different sound worlds: the change from the shimmering post-impressionist character of the first quartet to the high-impact second quartet is typical of Szymanowski's capricious nature. Both works are given accomplished performances, the Goldner's unfailingly accurate intonation matched by faultless internal balance. ...the Goldners capture their quirky nature to perfection” The Strad, 2000