Quatuor Meccore

On MDG, the Meccore String Quartet has recorded Edvard Grieg’s three works for string quartet, of which only String Quartet No. 1 in G minor is in complete form. Grieg’s music is often seen as defined by a small body of works: Piano Concerto, Peer Gynt suites, Holberg Suite, Lyric Pieces for solo piano including the notable Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. Nevertheless, there are a number of gems to discover, including the Cello Sonata, the three Violin Sonatas and the G minor String Quartet performed here.

The ambition of this new album by the Zaïde Quartet is to "bring two female composers of yesterday out of the shadows and give them their rightful place in the light of today". "Invisible", as the works of Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn remained for a long time, better known during their lifetime for their ties as virtuoso wives and sisters than for their own artistic genius. Through this programme of works by Clara & Robert Schumann and Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn, the four performers also intend to highlight the invisible links that unite them and allow them to shape a common imagination.

The Quatuor Voce presents Poétiques de l’instant, a long-term project and a diptych of recordings that aim to combine two of the key works in the repertory of any string quartet – the masterpieces of Debussy and Ravel – with other pieces of music and new compositions. This first instalment focuses on Debussy’s Quartet and the Quatuor Voce has enlisted a young composer, Yves Balmer, for the works that revolve around it: he has arranged the Proses lyriques song cycle and has also composed a new piece, Fragments soulevés par le vent. To record this programme, the quartet has chosen to perform alongside three exceptional artists, the soprano Jodie Devos, the flautist Juliette Hurel and the harpist Emmanuel Ceysson.

Simon Zaoui, Pierre Fouchenneret and Raphael Merlin here resume, and complete, their exploration of the chamber works of Gabriel Fauré:, begun in 2018 with the first volume of Horizons. Far from the prevailing trends of the early 20th century, Fauré's music for piano and strings testifies to the singularity of his language, constantly moving between past and future. Joined by violist Marie Chilemme for the two piano quartets, and by members of the Strada Quartet for the string quartet and quintets, the three friends present a carefully considered version of these masterpieces, recorded here for the first time using the material of the new Barenreiter edition.

Recordings that include strings quartets by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern are common, but an album that includes music for quartet and voice by each of them is a rarity. Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, with a part for soprano in its third and fourth movements, is standard repertoire, but the version of Berg's Lyric Suite with a vocal part in the final movement is highly unusual, and Webern's bagatelle with voice, an unpublished movement apparently once intended to be part of the Six Bagatelles, Op. 9, receives what is probably its first recording. Novelty aside, the high standards of these performances make this a formidable release. Founded just before the turn of the millennium, Quatuor Diotima plays with the assurance and mutual understanding of a seasoned ensemble. The quartet has a lean, clean sound and the ensemble is immaculate, playing with exquisite expressiveness, an ideal combination for this repertoire.

The Quatuor Voce, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, follows up its two recordings of Mozart with Juliette Hurel ( Alpha 204) and Brahms with Lise Berthaud ( Alpha 214) by inviting us on a journey to central Europe. The three works recorded here were written over a period of twenty years. Two of them allude to their composer’s love lives. Bartók’s First Quartet might be seen as Beethoven’s Quartet no.17. The intense opening Lento is a lyric-dramatic movement that transposes an unhappy experience of love. No previous quartet had come so close to the Beethovenian ideal. Janáček’s Second Quartet reflects his love for Kamila Stösslová, and is a faithful mirror of emotions in all their spontaneous and constantly shifting authenticity. Schulhoff was one of the first Jewish composers to fall victim to Nazi barbarity. Inventive, omnivorously curious, he was a virtuoso pianist who performed both jazz and serial music. His Five Pieces consist of a suite of dances in different styles, successively Alla Valse viennese , Alla Serenata , Alla Czeca , Alla Tango milonga and Alla Tarantella.

Though not as well-known as his songs and operettas, the chamber music of Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947) nevertheless includes some of his finest scores. It is thus not to be overlooked within his oeuvre, nor should it be considered subsidiary to his contribution to the musical theater. The present recording of the chamber music oeuvre of Reynaldo Hahn by the Quatuor Tchalik and Dania Tchalik on the piano is a project that coincides with the major retrospective, both musical and iconographic, on the Venezuelan-born French composer organized by the Palazzetto Bru Zane in 2019.

Born into a long line of musicians, some of whom officiated at the court of Versailles, Boëly was first taught from the age of five by his father, a countertenor at the Sainte-Chapelle who was also a composer, teacher and author of a treatise on harmony influenced by Rameau. In 1796, he entered the Paris Conservatoire to study under Guérillot (violin) and Ladurner (piano), who introduced him to Bach, Haydn and Clementi. His formal education was of short duration, however, since he was forced to leave the conservatory in 1800. From then on, he taught himself, reading the old masters to cultivate his personal tastes and develop his style, which was out of sync with that of the audiences of his time who preferred patriotic or Italian works to his overly classicist offerings.