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Piccolo Concerto Wien - Georg Christoph Wagenseil: Quartets for Low Strings (2013)

Posted By: tirexiss
Piccolo Concerto Wien - Georg Christoph Wagenseil: Quartets for Low Strings (2013)

Piccolo Concerto Wien - Georg Christoph Wagenseil: Quartets for Low Strings (2013)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:37:35 | 492 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Accent | Catalog: ACC 24242

The importance of Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) in the development of the classical symphony cannot be underestimated, and his concertos were also significant in the formation of the style of early Viennese classicism. As its chief representative, Wagenseil unites Italian, French and German stylistic elements in his works, as was typical of the 'mixed style' of the early 18th century. Moreover, he is considered one of the perfectors of the gallant-sentimental stylistic epoch which became so essential for the formation of classicism in 18th-century music history.

Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields - Spohr: Double Quartets (1998)

Posted By: tirexiss
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields - Spohr: Double Quartets (1998)

Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields - Spohr: Double Quartets (1998)
EAC | APE (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:50:24 | 595 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog: CDD22014

Louis Spohr's inventive streak is evident in his creation of the double quartet, a novel form that opened the string octet to new textural, antiphonal, and contrapuntal possibilities. However, like many of Spohr's other chamber experiments, his strategies occasionally led him into unintended compositional difficulties, and his results were most successful when he put aesthetic considerations over cleverness. Spohr's showy writing for the first violin, flamboyant and widespread in the Double Quartet No. 1, caused unevenness in the ensemble's balance and exposed the bareness of the other parts.

The Schubert Ensemble - Fauré: The Two Piano Quartets (2005)

Posted By: tirexiss
The Schubert Ensemble - Fauré: The Two Piano Quartets (2005)

The Schubert Ensemble - Fauré: The Two Piano Quartets (2005)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 267 MB | 01:04:24
Genre: Classical | Label: Nimbus Alliance

Warmhearted but clear-eyed, the Schubert Ensemble of London's recordings of the Piano Quartets of Fauré are anything but French performances. Where French performers can parse their emotions down to the most infinitesimal gradation of feeling but are intellectually profoundly superficial, these English performers are intellectually clear and lucid, but their interpretations are still deeply felt.

Daniel Raiskin - Brahms arr. Schoenberg: Piano Quartet; Brahms arr. Berio: Clarinet Sonata (2008)

Posted By: tirexiss
Daniel Raiskin - Brahms arr. Schoenberg: Piano Quartet; Brahms arr. Berio: Clarinet Sonata (2008)

Daniel Raiskin - Brahms arr. Schoenberg: Piano Quartet; Brahms arr. Berio: Clarinet Sonata (2008)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 61:46 | 311 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: CPO | Catalog: 777356-2

"The main attraction on this disc is the Berio orchestral arrangement of the Clarinet Sonata op.120/1. Like Schoenberg, it’s a harmonically and melodically “straight” transcription, not a modern re-imagining of the work. Berio, no stranger to orchestrations and adaptations - Puccini’s Turandot, works by Schubert, Mahler, and Verdi - tackled this last major work of Brahms’ for reasons we don’t know. Iosif Raiskin speculates that the tinges of Mahler in late Brahms may have been a reason for the Mahler-loving Berio. Be that as it may, the result is a wonderfully graceful Brahms Clarinet Concerto.

Emerson String Quartet, Menahem Pressler - Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op.44, Piano Quartet, Op. 47 (1996)

Posted By: tirexiss
Emerson String Quartet, Menahem Pressler - Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op.44, Piano Quartet, Op. 47 (1996)

Emerson String Quartet, Menahem Pressler - Schumann: Piano Quintet, Op.44, Piano Quartet, Op. 47 (1996)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 275 MB | 57:26
Genre: Classical | Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Schumann's Piano Quintet is one of the world's (and my) favorite pieces of chamber music. But the less-outgoing Piano Quartet eventually reveals its secrets, too, and it's another wonderful piece. These are fascinating performances. Menaham Pressler, on leave from the Beaux Arts Trio, blends his Old World charm with the New World energy of the Emerson Quartet.

Gabrieli String Quartet - Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 (1990)

Posted By: tirexiss
Gabrieli String Quartet - Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 (1990)

Gabrieli String Quartet - Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 (1990)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 59:08 | 296 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos | Catalog: CHAN 8827

The well-known British string quartet was founded in 1967 by Kenneth Sillito, who led the ensemble for some twenty years before passing the responsibility to John Georgiadis, at which point the Quartet entered into an exclusive contract with Chandos and made a number of fine recordings. It toured widely abroad and in the UK and was noted for its well-balanced performances. ‘I know this is a disc to be enjoyed again and again. The sound is simply flawless’, wrote the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

Tippett Quartet - Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartets Nos.1-3 (2023)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Tippett Quartet - Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartets Nos.1-3 (2023)

Tippett Quartet - Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Quartets Nos.1-3 (2023)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 363 Mb | Total time: 77:29 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.574428 | Recorded: 2021

Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote a significant body of chamber music (the Piano Trio and String Sextet are on Naxos 8.574008). His three String Quartets reflect differing periods of composition. The First marries impetuousness with enticing harmonies and rapt eloquence. The Second, which dates from 1933, is notable for its clarity, rhythmic impetus and melodic directness. The post-war Third is more relaxed, unexpectedly juxtaposing the archaic and modern with a joyful conclusion.

Ludwig van Beethoven 250 - Complete Edition [90CDs], Vol.4: Chamber Part 2 (2019)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Ludwig van Beethoven 250 - Complete Edition [90CDs], Vol.4: Chamber Part 2 (2019)

Ludwig van Beethoven 250 - Complete Edition [90CDs], Vol.4: Chamber Part 2 (2019)
XLD | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 2,86 Gb | Total time: 10:58:24 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Naxos | # 8.500250 | Recorded: 1987-2019

Beethoven’s monumental contribution to Western classical music is celebrated here in this definitive collection marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Surveying the totality of his career and achievement, the Complete Edition spans orchestral, concerto, keyboard, chamber, music for the stage, choral and vocal works, encompassing his most familiar and iconic masterpieces, alongside rarities and recently reconstructed fragments and sketches in world premiere recordings. The roster of artists and ensembles includes some of Beethoven’s greatest contemporary exponents, in performances that have won critical acclaim worldwide.

Minguet Quartett, Matthias Kirschnereit - Josef Suk: Complete Works for String Quartet; Piano Quintet (2014)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Minguet Quartett, Matthias Kirschnereit - Josef Suk: Complete Works for String Quartet; Piano Quintet (2014)

Minguet Quartett, Matthias Kirschnereit - Josef Suk: Complete Works for String Quartet; Piano Quintet (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 553 Mb | Total time: 124:45 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 777 652–2 | Recorded: 2010-2012

For CPO the Minguet Quartet has now recorded Suk's complete oeuvre for string quartet with Matthias Kirschnereit joining them for the early piano quintet. From this early quintet, a cosmos of the most wonderful chamber music spreads out before us, now finally documented by a young generation of artists.

Zemlinsky Quartet - Antonín Dvořák: Early Works for String Quartet [4CDs] (2007)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Zemlinsky Quartet - Antonín Dvořák: Early Works for String Quartet [4CDs] (2007)

Zemlinsky Quartet - Antonín Dvořák: Early Works for String Quartet [4CDs] (2007)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 1,19 Gb | Total time: 04:28:20 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # 350028 | Recorded: 2006

When Antonin Dvorák learned to compose, he did it the old-fashioned way – by composing. Although he had written numerous shorter works earlier, the 20-year-old Bohemian bestowed his Opus 1 on a three-movement String Quintet in A minor for pairs of violins and violas plus cello in 1861. The next year, he turned out his Opus 2, a four-movement String Quartet in A major, and over the next 12 years, he wrote six more string quartets. Through them, the listener can follow Dvorák's progress from a talented amateur with an inexhaustible gift for melody and little feel for form to an almost-ready-for-the-big-time composer who'd learned to tighten his structures and control his gift for melody.

Tokyo String Quartet - Beethoven: Complete String Quartets (2010)

Posted By: tirexiss
Tokyo String Quartet - Beethoven: Complete String Quartets (2010)

Tokyo String Quartet - Beethoven: Complete String Quartets (2010)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 2.34 Gb | 08:25:18
Genre: Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi

Enjoyable as other digital recordings of Beethoven's first quartets are, this new Tokyo set just about pips all rivals to the post. The reason is primarily one of balance, not only within the group itself but also in terms of overall musical judgement – whether relating to tempo, dynamics or emphases, or simply the way the players combine a sense of classical style with an appreciation of Beethoven's startling originality. If you're after a top-ranking digital set of Op 18, you couldn't do better.

Tokyo String Quartet - The Tokyo String Quartet Plays Haydn and Mozart (2015)

Posted By: tirexiss
Tokyo String Quartet - The Tokyo String Quartet Plays Haydn and Mozart (2015)

Tokyo String Quartet - The Tokyo String Quartet Plays Haydn and Mozart (2015)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 1.6 Gb | 05:04:55
Genre: Classical | Label: RCA Red Seal

Founded in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music, the Tokyo Quartet have amassed a fine and distinguished array of recordings for various labels, many enthusiastically received. In 2013 they disbanded after their longest serving members, the second violin Kikuei Ikeda and viola Kazuhide Isomura, decided to retire. Their final concert took place in Norfolk, Connecticut on 6 July 2013. For the last ten years of their existence, they were contracted to the Harmonia Mundi stable.

Borodin Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartets, Vol.3 (2004)

Posted By: tirexiss
Borodin Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartets, Vol.3 (2004)

Borodin Quartet - Beethoven: String Quartets, Vol.3 (2004)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 414 MB | 01:17:09
Genre: Classical | Label: Chandos Records

The third volume of the Borodin Quartet's long-awaited digital set of Beethoven's cycle presents one bold work from the end of the middle period, the String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95; the deeply moving late masterpiece, the String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op. 131; and the sui generis Grosse Fuge in B flat major, Op. 133, which is treated here as a quartet in its own right.

Belcea Quartet - Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel: String Quartets (2001)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Belcea Quartet - Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel: String Quartets (2001)

Belcea Quartet - Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel: String Quartets (2001)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 288 Mb | Total time: 71:16 | Scans included
Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # 5 74020 2 | Recorded: 2000

This Debut CD confirms the impression I’d formed from broadcasts of a highly talented, exceptionally well-integrated ensemble. Their excellent balance is highlighted by crystal-clear recording. The opening of the Debussy, brisk and forceful yet with plenty of variety and meticulous in observing the composer’s directions, immediately inspires confidence. After a while, though, I started to wonder whether the playing was a bit too careful and controlled; the Vertavo Quartet, not quite as slick and with more soft-edged recorded sound, give a much more spontaneous effect, with delightful and very idiomatic touches of rubato. Similarly in the Ravel, the Belcea performance brings out all the subtleties of texture and timbre, the fascinating cross-rhythms, the sweetly nostalgic emotional tone.

Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov - Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet & Quintet (2023)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov - Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet & Quintet (2023)

Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Alexander Melnikov - Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet & Quintet (2023)
XLD | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 247 Mb | Total time: 52:42 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Harmonia Mundi | # HMM902695 | Recorded: 2023

In his Piano Quartet and Quintet, Schumann revisited the frameworks inherited from Schubert and Beethoven to create astonishingly innovative structures. Their grandiose musical and emotional gestures place these works among his supreme achievements. The prestigious artists assembled here, with their extensive experience of performing Schumann’s chamber music and concertos, do full justice to his imaginative world.