Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, David Matthews
Performer: Kreutzer Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0318
Release: 2016
Size: 301 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Beethoven: Bagatelles, Op. 119
01. No. 1 in G Minor
02. No. 2 in C Major
03. No. 3 in D Major
04. No. 4 in A Major
05. No. 5 in C Minor
06. No. 6 in G Major
07. No. 7 in C Major
08. No. 8 in C Major
09. No. 9 in A Minor
10. No. 10. Allegramente
11. No. 11 in B-Flat Major
12. Matthews: Diabelli Variation (version for string quartet)
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101
13. I. Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung
14. II. Lebhaft. Marschmäßig
15. III. Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll
16. IV. Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major, Op. 22
17. II. Adagio con molto espressione (Arr. D. Matthews for String Quartet)
Matthews: String Quartet No. 11, Op. 108
18. Theme. Allegretto cantabile
19. Var. 1, L’istesso tempo
20. Var. 2, Poco più moderato
21. Var. 3, Presto
22. Var. 4, Allegro strepitoso
23. Var. 5, Tempo di tango feroce
24. Var. 6, Con moto languido
25. Var. 7, Misterioso
26. Var. 8, Tempo di mazurka
27. Var. 9, Scorrevole
28. Var. 10, Sostenuto
29. Var. 11, Quieto
30. Var. 12, Cavatina. Adagio
31. Var. 13a, Fuga. Molto vivace
32. Var. 13b, Andante tranquillo
33. Var. 13c, Tempo primo
This fourth CD in the series of David Matthews’s complete string quartets presents the String Quartet no.11 – a set of variations on the eighth of Beethoven’s Op.119 Bagatelles – and Matthews’s own contribution to the ‘Diabelli’ Variations, first written for piano and transcribed for string quartet – ‘a small miracle’, in the words of the violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved.
The disc also features Matthews’s complete Beethoven transcriptions for string quartet: the Piano Sonata no.28 in A major, op.101, the 11 New Bagatelles, op.119, and the slow movement of the Piano Sonata no.11 in B flat major, op.22.
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume 1 of this cycle of the Complete String Quartets of David Matthews (b.1943) as ‘some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartók, Britten, and Tippett.’
The Kreutzer Quartet – Peter Sheppard Skærved and Mihailo Trandafilovski, violins; Morgan Goff, viola; Neil Heyde, cello – have worked with David Matthews for many years now; many of his quartets were written with them in mind. The Kreutzer Quartet is also engaged on a project to record the string quartets of Beethoven’s friend and colleague Antoine Reicha, also for Toccata Classics.