| Label: NAXOS Catalog: 8557533 Format: CD Fred Sherry String QuartetSchoenberg:
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30,
String Quartet No. 4, Op. 37,
Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47 Gramophone Editor's Choice - December 2010
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 Price: $19.98 |