String Quartets 1 & 2

MECCORE STRING QUARTET

Another exhilarating debut on MDG- with the Meccore String Quartet fresh breezes waft through the world of chamber music. The four instrumentalists have selected string quartets by Edvard Grieg forming the ideal medium for their vibrant style. The distraught but magnificent Quartet in G minor Op. 27 marks the epochal shift from romanticism to impressionism. Although Grieg’s second quartet remained unfinished, this circumstance does not impair the quality of the extant fragment. Moreover, on this release the Meccores compensate for the missing movements with a fugue from the Norwegian master’s formative years. Unfulfilled yearning pervades the Quartet in G minor, a work containing autobiographical allusions certified by the composer himself. The opening Spielmannslied features brusque chords, a move that irritated some of the composer’s contemporaries but not Claude Debussy, who in it found inspiration for his quartet in the same key. Grieg develops all the themes and motives of the four-movement work on the basis of initial core elements and saves the absolutely glorious moment of redemption for the very end. Grieg’s second quartet in a bright F major remained unfinished; he was in very great demand as a pianist throughout the world, and he only very rarely found the repose necessary for composing. “Like an old Norwegian cheese” improving during the ripening process, the work waited for its composer, but in the end time remained only for a few sketches. The two finished movements distinguished by a light and carefree mood form the greatest possible contrast to their full-grown sister work. The fugue written as a composition exercise offers us a front-row seat in the highly talented young Grieg’s compositional workshop, and it too already breathes the Nordic tone typifying his great works. Young, passionate and wild- the dynamic Meccore String Quartet based in Warsaw takes the performance stage by storm. Where do its members get their energy? One factor here is surely their practice of standing- instead of sitting- during all their concerts. How can this best be experienced in recorded form, both spatially and tonally? The answer awaits you in the three dimensions of this high-resolution recording.

Price: $22.99