Nielsen: String Quartets 2 & 3

On this CD:

1. String quartet No.2 in F minor, Op.5 (FS11)
Composed by Carl Nielsen
Performed by Zapolski Quartet

2. String quartet No. 3 in E flat major, Op.14 (FS 23)
Composed by Carl Nielsen
Performed by Zapolski Quartet

Tracks:

Allegro Non Troppo Ma Energico
Un Poco Adagio
Allegretto Scherzando
Finale: Allegro Appassionato-Allegro Molto
Allegro Energico
Andante Amoroso
Scherzo: Allegro Molto
Finale: Allegro (Inquieto)

Customer Reviews:

Hoping for a wider diffusion of these invaluable compositions!.......2007-05-12

By historical reasons, the chamber genre experienced at the beginning of the XX Century, a painful aggravation, and among the different expressions, the genre of String Quartets, whose unique heralds were by then Ferrucio Busoni, Max Reger, Arnold Schoenberg, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen. On one hand, the Russian ballets, Mahler's symphonies and the raising Dodecaphonist movement, literally permeated most of musical halls in international stages. The echoes of the musical Impressionism( ravel and Debussy), the appearing of the "Six" (Taileferre, Auric, Honnegger, Milhaud, Satie and Poulenc) and isolated figures of the Neo Romanticism movement (Respighi), were involuntarily factors that somehow eclipsed this appreciated musical expression.

Carl Nielsen gave this genre a vigorous impulse, because understood the enormous importance of its significance. After Beethoven's death, only Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann and in minor relevance Dvorak, Smetana impressed this genre of refined splendor and creative vigor.

Nevertheless, the deserved reputation of these musical pages, are still far to affiance themselves in the musical taste of the great audiences, although the countless efforts of new chamber ensembles that have proposed themselves to play these works.

Thanks to our technological devices, treasures of such magnitude are available in the market, so this is your opportunity to acquire these priceless compositions that accent still more the prestige and world fame of Carl Nielsen.

Nielsen soft and smooth.......2003-09-09

Nielsen wrote these early string quartets while he was still in his early twenties, just after graduation from the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. Although they are original compositions in their own way, you can tell that Nielsen was still working hard to find his own distinctive style. In any case, they're nowhere near as original as his more mature compositions (like the six symphonies and the opera MASKARADE). Still, this is a great performance by the excellent Oslo String Quartet -- soft and smooth and champagne-y. Be sure to check out some other Nielsen CDs at Amazon, but this one is definitely worth the low price.

Good Early Music from the Great Dane.......2002-04-26

According to the cover notes to this recording, Nielsen's string quartets are coming to be regarded as some of the most important chamber music of the late 19th century. Would they'd show up more frequently on string quartet programs--I've never seen them programmed--because they are works well worth knowing. Quartets 1 and 2 have all the restless youthful energy of Nielsen's first two symphonies, along with the typically tender slow movements and, by turns, witty and brooding scherzi that admirers of the symphonies will recognize as Nielsen trademarks.

I slightly prefer the First Quartet, which seems to have an endless stream of good melodies and clever uses for them. I expecially like the fade-away coda of the slow movement, with its sweet harmonics, and although the last movement may outstay its welcome, the last pages ring such interesting changes on the thematic material of the movement that amends are made most generously.

If the string quartet is one of the hardest mediums to write for, it's remarkable how adept this largely self-taught composer was so early in his career at meeting the challenge. These are fully idiomatic quartets that sound as natural to the medium as Mozart's or Mendelssohn's. Now, great music this may not be, but treasurably entertaining music it most definitely is.

As with Naxos' Volume 2, Volume 1 of Nielsen's complete quartets is in the very capable hands of the Oslo Quartet, who obviously take Nielsen as seriously as he needs to be taken. Lovely playing, fine sonics--for Nielsen lovers, this is a must, and for those interested in the fertile byways of late 19th-century chamber music, the disc is highly recommendable as well.

Delightful.......2000-10-26

String quartets are like a window to the soul of the composer and Nielsen is wide open in this recording, specially in No. 1 Sensual, but with majestic intentions.

Nielsen has some hints of Schubert, but is very personal.

The performance by the Oslo string quartet is excellent and obviously have a feeling for scandinavian music.