Information
Composer: Charles Koechlin
- String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 51: 1. Allegro moderato
- String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 51: 2. Scherzo (Allegro scherzando non troppo vivace)
- String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 51: 3. Andante quasi adagio
- String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 51: 4. Finale (Allegro con moto)
- String Quartet No. 2, Op. 57: 1. Adagio
- String Quartet No. 2, Op. 57: 2. Scherzo (Allegro con fuoco)
- String Quartet No. 2, Op. 57: 3. Quasi adagio
- String Quartet No. 2, Op. 57: 4. Finale (Allegro moderato)
Ardeo Quartet
Carole Petitdemange, violin
Olivia Hughes, violin
Caroline Donin, viola
Joëlle Martinez, cello
Caroline Donin, viola
Joëlle Martinez, cello
Date: 2006
Label: Ar Re-Se
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Review
Having recently reviewed two CDs of the Howells chamber music (Metier and Lyrita) I recognised the style of the first of these two Koechlin works. Touchingly impressionistic, open air and tonal, the Ravel quartet comes to mind.
These are products of a young heart although a cooler wisdom is more obvious in the second. The music of Quartet No. 1 is tender and affecting even amid the Mozartean bustle of the finale. This peters out into a gentle cadence. This longer quartet opens with the same haunting sidling pattern as the first but with harmonics that suggest an autumnal chill. The harmonic complexity of this work suggests links with Berg. Perhaps Zemlinsky would be a better parallel as the textures in the first movement are quite lush - more Vienna than Berlin. The second movement bustles and has some satisfyingly grating touches. The more nuanced emotional world of this later work in terms of its coldness and vulnerable sorrow implies a knowledge of the war raging not far from where Koechlin was writing. The grand finale of op. 57 picks up on that sidling yet quick flowing tolling with which the work began but also echoes with wisps of the chill encountered in the first movement.
The String Quartet No. 2 was orchestrated in 1927 and became Koechlin's First Symphony.
All in all this is well worth your currency if you respond to the quartets of Ravel, Bonnal (superb music) or Howells.
-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International
More reviews:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/nov/23/classicalmusicandopera.shopping6http://www.allmusic.com/album/koechlin-string-quartets-nos-1-2-mw0001863336
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Charles Koechlin (27 November 1867 – 31 December 1950) was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars (especially Lilian Harvey and Ginger Rogers), traveling, stereoscopic photography and socialism. Koechlin was enormously prolific. Despite his lack of worldly success, Koechlin was apparently a loved and venerated figure in French music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin
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The Ardeo Quartet was founded in 2001. Supported by Mécénat Musical Société Générale, the quartet has been in residence at the Singer- Polignac Foundation since 2008 and with Pro-Quartet since 2010. In Paris, the Ardeo Quartet has played at the Cité de la Musique, the Orsay Museum, the Théâtre du Chatelet and the Centre Georges Pompidou and has played in the most important festivals in France and abroad. Current members included: Carole Petitdemange (violin I), Mi-sa Yang (violin II), Yuko Hara (viola) & Joëlle Martinez (cello)
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