Composer: Anton Bruckner, Friedrich Klose
Performer: Quatuor Diotima
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Pentatone
Catalogue: PTC5187217
Release: 2024
Size: 887 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Bruckner: String Quartet in C minor, WAB111
01. I. Allegro moderato
02. II. Andante
03. III. Scherzo
04. IV. Rondo
05. Bruckner: Rondo in C Minor, WAB 208
06. Bruckner: Theme with Variations in E-Flat Major for String Quartet, WAB 210
Klose: String Quartet in E-Flat Major
07. I. Moderato
08. II. Adagio ma non troppo
09. III. Vivace
10. IV. Moderato
Quatuor Diotima celebrates the bicentennial anniversary of Anton Bruckner with a recording of his String Quartet in C Minor, Rondo in C Minor and Theme with Variations in E-Flat Major, alongside the String Quartet in E-Flat Major from his pupil Friedrich Klose. Bruckner wrote these pieces as composition exercises, yet they adumbrate the originality and power of his later works, as well as pay tribute to the glorious Viennese quartet tradition. Like Bruckner, Klose strongly sympathized with Wagner and the proponents of programme music, and chamber music had not appealed to him very much up until the moment he embarked on his only string quartet composition. Sarcastically, he subtitled it a “tribute paid in four instalments to my stern German schoolmasters”, yet he demonstrates a full mastery of the conventions of musical form, paired with an almost unprecedented wealth of musical ideas. This album, recorded at and in close cooperation with the Brucknerhaus Linz, shall be one of the most original contributions to the Bruckner year 2024, highlighting his achievements in the field of chamber music as well as his compositional legacy. Quatuor Diotima is one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world today, and has worked in close collaboration with several of the greatest composers of the late twentieth century. Reflected in the mirror of today’s music, the quartet projects a new light onto the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries. The quartet returns to PENTATONE after their acclaimed Metamorphosis Ligeti, released in 2023.