Carducci quartet shostakovich biography

The Ninth and Fifteenth Quartets, though written ten years apart, match at least because both are multi-movement works that play continuously. The Ninth has a symmetrical plan, a central scherzo preceded and followed by two adagios, framed by faster music for the opening and closing movements. The scale of the outer movements differs, here four minutes for the first and ten minutes for the last.

The score proposes overall twenty-six minutes: the Carducci take Yet the Carducci never sound sluggish, even in the two adagios.

Carducci quartet shostakovich biography

The matter of speed especially affects a well-known moment early in the third movement. The Carducci are precise and spritely here, tempting you to hum the missing tune. They are right: this sounds more musical and more characterful. In theory, the Russian recording should carry more authority, but it is what comes to mind when one listens to this account.

The Carducci observe the tranquillo marking of the first movement well enough with a relaxed opening. The Ninth is thought of as the start of a new style. Shostakovich moves from the rhetorical power of the Eighth toward music more ingratiating, sometimes lighter, but also more ambiguous or elusive. Satire and irony are never too far away.

The Carducci are well attuned to this, and always responsive to the frequent shifts of mood and texture. The obsessive semitonal oscillation and harsh pizzicati of the fourth movement take us somewhere comfortless, if not quite tragic. Harsh dissonances bite, and there is a willingness to produce a rough sound, when that is what the notes and markings imply.

The Fifteenth quartet is often seen as valedictory, as Shostakovich had been seriously ill. There is no dedicatee, so commentators wonder if he intended it for himself. Six movements played continuously are all marked Adagio ; it is Adagio molto in the fifth-movement funeral march. That seems monotonous, but there are many kinds of motion, texture and harmonic tension within that constraint.

His longest quartet, it takes the Beethoven Quartet The Carducci Quartet play this climactic work of the cycle with the dedication it demands. Their overall time of seems about right. To take 32 minutes is not unknown, as did the Mandelring Quartet on Audite, and it never felt too swift. But the Carducci find speeds that feel right, and allow them when needed to achieve the paradox — as in the opening Elegy — of combining a senses of stasis with a discernible onward pulse.

There are passage of great beauty in this music, and in this acount the opening Elegy is a fugue of timeless eloquence. Watch: Carducci String Quartet plays a Shostakovich string quartet - with drums. However, the dry recording becomes something of a disadvantage, particularly in the slower movements which require more continuity of line and warmer resonance.

Another snag is the slightly compressed dynamic range which reduces the potential for exploring a wider spectrum of emotions, especially in the constantly changing moods in the exhilarating finale of no. Ultimately, other recordings of these carducci quartet shostakovich biography — for example, the Jerusalem Quartet in the Ninth and the Keller Quartet in the 15th — probe more deeply behind the notes, creating performances of greater immediacy.

The emerging Fibonacci Quartet and the established Carducci Quartet will emphasise string quartet practice within the college and the broader community throughout the new two-year residency. Site powered by Webvision Cloud. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. No comments.