COMPOSERS: Grechaninov
LABELS: Marco Polo
WORKS: String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 4
PERFORMER: Moyzes Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: 8.223646 DDD
The career of Alexander Grechaninov (1864-1956), like Rachmaninov’s, bridged the Tsarist and Soviet eras. He, too, emigrated to America and wrote in a style that barely acknowledged musical advances in Europe and elsewhere. Yet these quartets reveal a fecund creative mind, with music suffused with Russian melodic patterns, even if the Fourth Quartet (1929) moves very little further along the road of musical history from his already assured Second (1913). These performances have plenty of personality and the sound is excellent. Matthew Rye
Grechaninov: String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 4
The career of Alexander Grechaninov (1864-1956), like Rachmaninov’s, bridged the Tsarist and Soviet eras. He, too, emigrated to America and wrote in a style that barely acknowledged musical advances in Europe and elsewhere. Yet these quartets reveal a fecund creative mind, with music suffused with Russian melodic patterns, even if the Fourth Quartet (1929) moves very little further along the road of musical history from his already assured Second (1913). These performances have plenty of personality and the sound is excellent. Matthew Rye
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:32 pm