Composer: Mieczysław Weinberg
Performer: Arcadia Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN20180
Release: 2023
Size: 1.15 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
String Quartet No. 4 in E-Flat Major, Op. 20
01. I. Allegro commodo
02. II. Moderato assai
03. III. Largo marciale
04. IV. Allegro moderato
String Quartet No. 16 in A-Flat Minor, Op. 130
05. I. Allegro – Moderato
06. II. Allegro – Andantino
07. III. Lento
08. IV. Moderato
As with the previous volumes in their survey of the quartets of Weinberg, the Arcadia Quartet have selected a pair of works from contrasting stylistic periods of the composer’s output. The Fourth Quartet was composed in 1945, shortly after Weinberg had moved to Moscow. The Quartet presents an abstract, psychologically universal picture – a testimony both to the composer’s artistic maturity and to the affinity that Weinberg had discovered with Shostakovich. The Sixteenth Quartet was composed between 1 January and 15 February 1981. It carries a dedication to Weinberg’s sister, Ester, who had perished following the Nazi invasion of Poland and would have been sixty that year. Typical of his later compositional style, the writing is more muscular, harmonically complex, and intense.