Cinemaphonia

NEW RUSSIAN QUARTET

The very concept of the album seems to provoke a “decent” lover of music. A refined and "intellectualized” genre of chamber quartet and cinema! Half of the album is devoted to music of classical quartet works (Haydn, Mozart, Borodin, Janácek) which have been used in motion pictures in different years (Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio is particularly frequent – originally the slow part of String Quartet No. 1). Also, there is Shostakovich’s Elegy, the composer’s first experience in the quartet genre, which later was used in his opera Katerina Izmailova. However, the main emphasis is on the quartet Cinemaphonia recorded by Alexei Steblev, a cellist, composer and member of the New Russian Quartet. Compiled from the music to Avdotia Smirnova’s films Fathers and Sons (2008) and Two Days (2011), it is a selfsufficient cycle in the vein of academic tradition. The music was recorded in 2015 by the New Russian Quartet, one of today’s best Russian chamber ensembles, the members of which represent the domestic tradition of ensemble playing with dignity.

Price: $27.98