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Sunday, June 24, 2018

Sergei Taneyev; Alexander Glazunov - String Quintets (Gringolts Quartet)


Information

Composer: Sergei Taneyev; Alexander Glazunov
  • (01-12) Taneyev - String Quintet No. 1 in G major, Op. 14
  • (13-16) Glazunov - String Quintet in A major, Op. 39

Gringolts Quartet
Ilya Gringolts, violin
Anahit Kurtikyan, violin
Silvia Simionescu, viola
Claudius Herrmann, cello
&
Christian Poltéra, cello

Date: 2015
Label: BIS
http://bis.se/label/bis/taneyev-glazunov-string-quintets

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Review

Taneyev and Glazunov were the two opposite extremes of their generation in Russia. Taneyev was the stern artistic conscience of the Western-facing Moscow school, immersing himself in counterpoint and classical myth. Glazunov was the golden boy of the St Petersburg nationalists, heir to Rimsky-Korsakov’s sense of instrumental colour and blessed with a seemingly bottomless well of lyrical melody.

So much for preconceptions. This attractive disc of string quintets from the Gringolts Quartet and (real luxury-casting, this) cellist Christian Poltéra finds Taneyev at his most melodically engaging and Glazunov at his most ideally proportioned. True, where Taneyev uses his extra cello to add depth and complexity to a muscular thematic argument, Glazunov stirs it into his already-sweet textures like double cream. But there’s a balletic charm to the 10 variations that make up Taneyev’s enormous (just shy of 20 minutes) finale; Glazunov, meanwhile, solves the problem of making his last movement ‘go’ with a freshness and verve that’s by no means a given in his chamber music.

It helps that the Gringolts Quartet approach both works with such obvious affection. The Taneyev is up against the Martinů Quartet’s recent account and here Ilya Gringolts’s glowing tone and liquid grace score highly. Listen to the expressive but unaffected way he handles the little cadenza at the end of Var 5 (helpfully, BIS gives each variation its own track listing). Gringolts is never more than first among equals, however, and the Quintet’s sunset coda is lovingly handled, the individual strands of the texture beautifully caught in BIS’s warm, transparent sound.

Their Glazunov feels if anything even more intimate, with a way of lingering over the first movement’s long, singing phrases that gives it a touchingly self-conscious quality. If it doesn’t perhaps flow with quite the sense of forward momentum that the Nash Ensemble achieve, this is nonetheless true chamber-music playing, alert to Glazunov’s jewel-box colours (the Scherzo is particularly delicious) and with a real feeling of give and take between five committed players. Aficionados of either composer will certainly want to hear this recording – and it would make a perfect entry point to the chamber music of Russia’s Silver Age.

-- Richard Bratby, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: **** / RECORDING: *****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Mar/Glazunov_quintet_BIS2177.htm
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/taneyev-glazunov-string-quintets/

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Sergei Taneyev (November 25 [O.S. November 13] 1856 – June 19 [O.S. June 6] 1915) was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author. Among his teachers at the Moscow Conservatory are Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (composition) and Nikolai Rubinstein (piano). Taneyev's specialized field of study was counterpoint, and he was considered one of the greatest of contrapuntalists. Taneyev's compositions, including nine complete string quartets and four symphonies, reveal his mastery of classical composition technique, but many of them were considered "dry and laboured in character".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Taneyev

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Alexander Glazunov (10 August 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor. He served as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 Glazunov was significant in that he successfully reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music. While he was the direct successor to Balakirev's nationalism, he tended more towards Borodin's epic grandeur while absorbing a number of other influences, including Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral virtuosity, Tchaikovsky's lyricism and Taneyev's contrapuntal skill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Glazunov

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The Zurich-based Gringolts Quartet was founded in 2008, born from mutual friendships and chamber music partnerships that cross four countries. The quartet has collaborated with eminent artists such as Leon Fleisher and Christian Poltéra. In addition to playing the classical quartet repertoire, the members are also dedicated performers of contemporary music, including works by Marc-André Dalbavie, Jörg Widmann and Jens Joneleit. The members of the Gringolts Quartet all play on rare Italian instruments, especially Ilya Gringolts, who plays a Giuseppe Guarneri "del Gesù" violin, Cremona 1742-43, on loan from a private collection.
http://gringoltsquartet.com/

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7 comments:

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  2. Sorry, decompresion error. Damaged archive. The structure of the archive is damaged (Error #17540)
    Thanks

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    1. Updating Winrar to version 5.50 might solve this problem.

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  3. Muchas gracias el enlace al dia de hoy funciona perfectamente :)))

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