Debut recording of the astonishing quartet of whom The Times of London wrote: "What a group! On they come, devoid of frills, just the instruments, and the music in their heads and fingers. And then they start up, the sound so full-blooded, dangerous and raw. Though the velvet touch is not beyond them, they never dispense dainty milk and honey: you are forcefully aware that this is music-making bold and magical…"
Karl Amadeus Hartmann / Béla Bartók
Zehetmair Quartett
- Streichquartett Nr. 1 - Carillon
- 1Langsam - Sehr lebhaft08:18
- 2Con sordino07:01
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- Streichquartett Nr. 4
- 4Allegro05:43
- 5Prestissimo, con sordino02:49
- 6Non troppo lento05:20
- 7Allegretto pizzicato02:41
- 8Allegro molto05:12
On its debut album, the Zehetmair Quartet plays string quartets by Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Bela Bartók. As Hermann Conen notes in the CD booklet, barely five years separate the two compositions. "Béla Bartók's Fourth String Quartet, dating from 1928, was still a postlude to the First World War, whereas Karl Amadeus Hartmann's First String Quartet (1933) was already a prelude to the Second. In the powerful maelstrom of this extraordinary period, 'during which peace mimicked war', both composers consciously chose the benchmark genre of the string quartet to convey their message."
Although neither Bartók nor Hartmann was to follow the austere paths toward atonality that the innovations of the Second Vienna School opened up, both composers were profoundly inspired by Alban Berg's Lyric Suite. Bartók first heard it in Baden-Baden in July 1927 and promptly set about penning a response. As with many of the great Hungarian composer's works of the period it also borrows melodic, rhythmic and harmonic ideas from the world of folk music, yet it is its sense of completeness, of being a world unto itself, that Bartók scholars have singled out as the composition's most outstanding attribute. It is often regarded as a "breakthrough" piece in his oeuvre. György Kroó, for instance, wrote that "The String Quartet No. 4 represents that moment in Bartók's development as a composer when he first glimpses infinite horizons and in one sweeping glance perceives his own realm in its entirety. One can still feel the explosive quality of the stupendous force and tension which drove him to create this composition."
Inspiration for Hartmann's three-movement quartet, in turn, came from both Berg's Lyric Suite, and from Bartók's Fourth String Quartet. "But already the slow introduction of the first movement breaks out into independent territory..."
Hartmann wrote his composition in full knowledge that it would not be played in his native Germany for many years - his anti-fascist political stance guaranteed as much - but the work's dedicatee, Hermann Scherchen, helped to find contexts in which it could be heard. When the First String Quartet won First Prize at the 1936 Carillon Competition in Geneva, Hartmann's status as a genuinely "independent German composer" began to be recognised.
Both the Bartók and Hartmann pieces are strong, forcefully driven compositions that demand a fierce commitment from the players. Hermann Conen: "Producing great string quartets is always a challenge to both composers and interpreters. Often lifelong ties are forged and, with them, an authentic thread of tradition....The Zehetmair Quartet takes up this tradition in the very finest sense here. The intensity with which they approach the works is nowhere clearer than in the decision of the musicians assembled around first violinist Thomas Zehetmair to play by heart in concert and in the recording studio. One is almost tempted to add: by heart and with heart." What they propose is an "unhampered journey to the poetic 'heart of the matter'. This is the musicians' way of returning to the origin of their inspiration."
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