Bartok, Hindemith: String Quartets

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The Bartók No. 5… is almost hysterically passionate, a brilliant and exciting performance that grips from first bar to last. — BBC Music Magazine, July 2007, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 26th Mar 2007
Catalogue No: 4765779
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 50 minutes

Gramophone Awards

2007

Finalist - Chamber
Gramophone Magazine

July 2007

Editor's Choice

Bartók: String Quartet No. 5, Sz 102

Work length28:44

$4.25

$5.75

Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Kuba Jakowicz (violin), Ruth Killius (viola), Ursula Smith (cello)
Zehetmair Quartett
Recorded: 2006-06-29
Recording Venue: Kulturbühne Am Bach, Götzis

1. Allegro

Track length6:58

$0.85

$1.15

2. Adagio molto

Track length5:32

$0.85

$1.15

3. Scherzo. Alla bulgarese

Track length4:38

$0.85

$1.15

4. Andante

Track length4:58

$0.85

$1.15

5. Finale. Allegro vivace

Track length6:38

$0.85

$1.15

Hindemith: String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22 (1921) (previously No. 3)

Work length21:45

$4.25

$5.75

Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Kuba Jakowicz (violin), Ruth Killius (viola), Ursula Smith (cello)
Zehetmair Quartett
Recorded: 2006-06-29
Recording Venue: Kulturbühne Am Bach, Götzis

1. Fugato. Sehr langsame Viertel

Track length4:49

$0.85

$1.15

2. Schnelle Achtel. Sehr energisch, Presto

Track length4:25

$0.85

$1.15

3. Ruhige Viertel. Stets fließend

Track length6:35

$0.85

$1.15

4. Mäßig schnelle Viertel

Track length1:58

$0.85

$1.15

5. Rondo. Gemächlich und mit Grazie

Track length3:58

$0.85

$1.15

Reviews
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Reviews

July 2007

The Bartók No. 5… is almost hysterically passionate, a brilliant and exciting performance that grips from first bar to last.

2010

A few seconds into the first movement of this extraordinary version of the Fifth Quartet check whether the dynamics are being played as written – many aren't. The Zehetmairs career around the notes like bikers on a zig-zag course, tracing arches at speed with what sounds like the least effort. At the fervid build-up nearly three minutes in they lunge at the music fortissimo though for the starkly syncopated passage a few seconds later their legato handling of the viola/ cello lines tends to soften the argument's impact.
It'll take some getting used to, but persevere.
There's savagery, too – for example where Bartók asks the leader to play ff stridente and Zehetmair all but saws through his fiddle.
Don't expect either a comfortable or a familiar ride. The two symmetrically placed slow movements embrace vivid, often rough-hewn textures, from a quiet chalky treble to fierce full chords. Perhaps the most satisfying movements are the Scherzo alla bulgarese and the finale: both suggest an element of rustic dance, the finale's quieter music sounding eerily effective, especially at speed.
Hindemith's somewhat drier Fourth Quartet (1921) predates Bartók's Fifth by some 13 years.
Like the Bartók it is cast in five rather than the usual four movements, the first opening to a slow, shadowy fugato which soon flares to nearrage.
Both here and in the ferocious Scherzo the Zehetmair Quartet capture the music's radical spirit, much as they do for the equivocal, gently marching slow movement.
This is a fascinating CD. With the Zehetmairs you're rarely aware of bar-lines, more a constant flow of ideas, a compelling journey with a stated destination but with little need of pedantic signposting en route. You sense that the written notes have been fully absorbed and that the playing has become, in a sense, pure instinct.

July 2007

This is a fascination CD. With the Zehetmairs you're rarely aware of bar-lines, more a constant flow of ideas, a compelling journey with a stated destination but with little need of pedantic signposting en route. You sense that the written notes have been fully absorbed and that the playing has become, in a sense, pure instinct.

Bartok, Hindemith: String Quartets

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