Composer: Alban Berg, György Ligeti, Dmitri Shostakovich
Performer: Minetti Quartett
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hänssler
Catalogue: HC23060
Release: 2023
Size: 506 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Berg: String Quartet, Op. 3
01. Langsam
02. Mäßige Viertel
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, Op. 108
03. Allegretto
04. Lemto
05. Allegro – Allegretto
Ligeti: String Quartet No. 1 ‘Métamorphoses nocturnes’
06. Allegro grazioso
07. Vivace
08. Adagio, mesto
09. Presto
10. Prestissimo
11. Andante tranquillo
12. Tempo di valse, moderato con eleganza, un poco capriccioso
13. Subito prestissimo
14. Allegretto, un poco gioviale
15. Prestissimo
16. Ad libitum, senza misura
17. Lento
Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 lasts no more than twelve minutes. The composer wrote it in March 1960 and dedicated it to his first wife Nina Vasilyevna Varzar – or rather, to her memory, for she had died five years earlier of an insidious form of cancer; suddenly, and without warning. It Is a very personal work, one that is close to the composer’s heart, for here Shostakovich breaks the strict sequence of keys he imposed on himself. Alban Berg’s String Quartet No. 1 has 2 movements, bears the opus number 3, and is nevertheless considered the composer’s first autonomous work, even though the composer himself points out that he received it personally from Schoenberg. An homage to Arnold Schoenberg, then, who propelled his pupil into an independent career with this journeyman place? Or is it really a declaration of love? While working on his Opus 3, Alban has already been hopelessly In love with Helene for a long while. Georg Alexander, alias Gyorgy Sandor Ligeti, completed his first string quartet in 1954, when he was still living in Budapest at the age of thirty-one and recently divorced. For the second time! His first marriage, to his childhood sweetheart Brigitte, lasted only three years, and the second, to the psychology student Veronika Spitz, was entered into for purely political reasons. In 1952, Veronika, who came from a family of former factory owners, was in danger of being deported to a labour camp by the communist regime in Hungary as a representative of the bourgeoisie, and it was only by getting married to Ligeti that a semblance of protection could be afforded to her. As soon as the danger is averted following the death of Stalin, they divorce as agreed.