Fred Sherry String Quartet - Schoenberg: String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 - Phantasy (2010)

Tracklist

01. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30: I. Moderato
02. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30: II. Adagio
03. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30: III. Intermezzo. Allegro moderato
04. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30: IV. Rondo. Molto moderato
05. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37: I. Allegro molto; energico
06. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37: II. Comodo
07. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37: III. Largo
08. String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37: IV. Allegro
09. Phantasy, Op. 47

While Schoenberg’s final two string quartets inhabit atonal sound worlds, the Third draws on Classical forms such as theme-and-variations, minuet and sonata-rondo, its unsettling opening movement recalling a fairytale picture, ‘The Ghostship’, its Adagio a movement of spiritual depth and beauty.

Schoenberg was particularly pleased with his Fourth String Quartet, which follows a creative logic of continual development and variation derived from the music of Bach and Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner.

The Phantasy is a virtuosic peroration for violin with commentary from the piano, a prime example of Schoenberg’s avowed aim to write ‘really new music which, as it rests on tradition, is destined to become a tradition’.

“Robert Craft was put on this earth to produce clear blueprints of Schoenberg and Stravinsky scores.” Gramophone

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