Maisenberg

Dmitri Shostakovich - Hagen Quartett - Sting Quartets Nos. 4; 11; 14
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 287 MB | Full Artwork: 75 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Grammophon # 445 564-2 GH | Country/Year: Germany 1995
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

The Hagen String Quartet is one of the leading string quartets of its native Austria, known for its wide-ranging repertoire and its long association with Gidon Kremer and the Lockenhaus Festival. (…) The Hagen String Quartet became an exclusive act with Deutsche Grammophon, which has issued a series of recordings of their performances at Lockenhaus as well as a many others…

Gidon Kremer's technical brilliance, inward but passionate playing, and commitment to both new works and new interpretations of old works have made him one of the most respected violinists in the world today.

Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili was signed to the Sony Classical label in her early 20s after a series of major competition prizes and began a top-level international career. She has said that some of her interpretations are influenced by Georgian folk music. Buniatishvili's international renown comes in large part from her recordings. She was signed to the Sony Classical label and released her debut album, Khatia Buniatishvili Plays Franz Liszt, in 2011. Her 2012 release, Chopin, won the Echo Klassik Young Artists' Award. Buniatishvili has remained on Sony's roster, recording mostly core virtuoso 19th and early 20th century repertory. In 2020, she released the recital Labyrinth, featuring an eclectic program ranging from Bach to Philip Glass and Serge Gainsbourg. Buniatishvili lives in Paris.

The breadth of clarinetist Sabine Meyer's repertoire is matched by her dedication to collaborations with other, equally skilled musicians. She received her first music lessons from her father, clarinetist Karl Meyer, and then went on to study with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hannover. She was 16 when she made her professional debut. She joined Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for a time, then in 1982, Herbert von Karajan created something of an international stir by appointing her as solo clarinetist for the Berlin Philharmonic, going against the orchestra's tradition of not admitting female musicians.

Sarah Chang is certainly an exceptional player; her finely produced tone is characteristically sweet, yet she varies it most imaginatively — in the Concerto's slow movement, for instance, where she follows the changing shades of emotion in the most detailed way. The first movement may have been recorded with more strongly expressed feeling (by Boris Belkin), its finale with more mercurial displays of virtuosity (Xue-Wei), but overall Chang is the equal of any, with relaxed technical command and real feeling for the music. The accompaniment is well balanced and cleanly recorded, with distinguished solo contributions from woodwind and horns.