Una Corda Native

These recordings are the first in what I hope will be a long running series.

Haydn’s six Op. 20 string quartets are milestones in the history of the genre. He wrote them in 1772 for performance by his colleagues at the Esterházy court and, unusually, not specifically for publication. Each one is a unique masterpiece and the set introduces compositional techniques that radically transformed the genre and shaped it for centuries to come. Haydn overturns conventional instrumental roles, crafts remarkably original colours and textures, and unlocks new expressive possibilities in these works which were crucial in establishing the reputation of purely instrumental music. The range within the quartets is kaleidoscopic. From the introspective, chorale-like slow movement of No. 1 via the terse and radical quartet No. 3 in G minor to the comic spirit of the fourth in D major, each of the quartets inhabits a distinct musical world. For many, this is some of the greatest music Haydn ever wrote. Playing these seminal works is one of the world’s finest young ensembles, the Doric String Quartet.

A fascinating disc, yet one that for a variety of reasons functions in a rather supplemental fashion. These readings aim to bring authenticity (viewed from a variety of angles) to bear on these familiar scores, presumably intending them to be able to be heard in a new light. Not that ?authentic? performances of Beethoven are too thin on the ground?but such chamber-music forces as these certainly reveal detail in a way rarely encountered.

On this recording Miklós Spányi has exchanged his previous harpsichord or fortepiano for a tangent piano: it's like a fortepiano but has the strings struck vertically by tangents (as in the clavichord) rather than at an angle by hammers. Its tone could also be modified by raising the dampers completely or only in the treble, employing only one of each note's two strings (una corda), inserting a leather strip ('moderator') between tangents and strings, or creating a harp-like effect by damping the strings with small pieces of cloth.

Cançó d'amor i de guerra (en español «Canción de amor y de guerra») es una zarzuela en catalán escrita en dos actos, que se estrenó el 16 de abril de 1926 en el Teatre Nou de Barcelona. Se convirtió en el primer gran éxito del compositor valenciano Rafael Martínez Valls, con texto de Lluís Capdevila y Víctor Mora.