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Thursday, May 30, 2019

Karl Amadeus Hartmann - String Quartets (Airis String Quartet)


Information

Composer: Karl Amadeus Hartmann; Anton Webern
  • (01) Hartmann - String Quartet No. 1 'Carillon'
  • (04) Hartmann - String Quartet No. 2
  • (07) Webern - Langsamer Satz

Airis String Quartet
Aleksandra Czajor, violin
Natalia Warzecha-Karkus, violin
Julia Kotarba, viola
Grażyna Zubik, cello

Date: 2019
Label: CD Accord
http://www.cdaccord.com.pl/tracks.en.html?acd=245

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s two string quartets are tightly crafted, emotionally wide ranging, and powerfully communicative yet uncompromising. They also are sadly overlooked, which is why new recordings always are welcome, especially with an ensemble as solid and committed as the Airis Quartet. In the First quartet first movement they lash out in the abrupt fortissimo outbursts with tighter synchronicity than the no-less formidable Zehetmair Quartet on ECM, while bringing a subtle range of nuance to the second movement’s sustained muted writing.

Perhaps the close engineering helps to underline the dense and harmonically rich tuttis in the Second quartet’s first movement to more intense effect than in CPO’s relatively leaner Pellegrini-Quartett recording. Yet while the Airis is unrelentingly grim and hard-hitting throughout the Finale’s bleakly scampering passages, some listeners may find the lighter and faster Pellegrini reading easier to take in. The Airis Quartet never plays less than well in Webern’s youthful Slow Movement, but I’m still spoiled by the Quartetto Italiano’s ravishing refinement and shapelier handling of the back-and-forth pizzicatos. While my preference leans toward the Pellegrini-Quartett, the Airis Quartet’s undeniable strength and focus deserve equal attention.

-- Jed DistlerClassicsToday

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Karl Amadeus Hartmann (2 August 1905 – 5 December 1963) was a German composer. Hartmann studied with Joseph Haas, a pupil of Max Reger, and later received encouragement from Hermann Scherchen. He voluntarily withdrew completely from musical life in Germany during the Nazi era and refused to allow his works to be played there. After the war, he became a vital figure in the rebuilding of (West) German musical life. Hartmann's music is a synthesis of many different idioms, including musical expressionism and jazz stylization, into organic symphonic forms in the tradition of Bruckner and Mahler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Amadeus_Hartmann

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The Airis String Quartet was founded in 2008 by the students from the Academy of Music in Cracow. In 2014, the quartet finished their post-graduate studies at University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. The ensemble also took part in numerous masterclasses and improved their skills with such musicians as the Silesian String Quartet, the Apollon Musagete Quartett, the Melos Quartet and the Quatuor Ysaÿe. The quartet has won many awards at international competitions. Besides classical and romantic pieces, contemporary music holds a special place in the Airis String Quartet's repertoire.
https://airisquartet.com/

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