BaL 15.04.23 - Janácek: String Quartet No 1, “Kreutzer Sonata”

[ardcarp]

We were obviously too busy congratualating ourselves to hear the answer.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Actually as I recall John Field was (part of) the question and Nocturne was the answer, which the captain of Jesus Cambridge got (after Chopin had also been mentioned in the question).

Presumably it was a starter question that was structured so that clever clogs forumites could mentally press the buzzer after John Field leaving the studio teams to wait for the giveaway name Chopin .
Something like “what short piano form derived from the Latin word for night (one for classicists ) was invented by pianist John Field ( back slapping amongst forumites etc ). It’s most famous exponent was Frederic Chopin …”

[LeMartinPecheur]

I was transfixed by this BaL. I've known and loved the work since the 70s via the prize-winning CfP/ Supraphon recording by the Janaceks but had never tried to follow the narrative links to the Tolstoy story. Since the 70s I've added the Dantes and the Gabrielis on CD, the latter bought IIRC for the Smetana coupling.

What Levi flagged for me was an increasing move away from integrated, classical-romantic performance-styles towards deliberately fragmented, expressionistic ones. Some of the latter seemed too far off the scale in (e.g) the dissonant sul ponticello disruptions. Some of these in the polka movement seemed to me way over the top, positively un-musical. But hey, there will be other views!

Uniquely for me, at the end of the programme I listened to all my recordings, all of which I'd call still at the 'integrated' end of the spectrum. The one that baffles me most is the Dantes on Meridian. I've never got on with this disc - how I wish it had been recorded by their usual label, Hyperion. It sounds distant, over-reverberant, with no brilliance to the violin tone, and this surely is essential in these quartets. But Penguin did rate it highly. Does anyone here know it? The Janacek Quartet wove its usual magic and the Gabrielis were better than I remembered, but so as to challenge my leanings towards 'integrated, classical-romantic' I've ordered the Prazaks!

Have just received my copy of the winning Prazaks and am very, very impressed. Won't be throwing away my Janacek Quartet CfP LP but the Prazaks are certainly now my top CD choice.

[Master Jacques]

Have just received my copy of the winning Prazaks and am very, very impressed. Won't be throwing away my Janacek Quartet CfP LP but the Prazaks are certainly now my top CD choice.

The Prazaks certainly achieve a momentous power approaching the end of the last movement, which never fails to astonish me. It says much for this music, that so many groups find so many different emphases in it, and that nearly all of them make it "work".

[Pulcinella]

The Prazaks certainly achieve a momentous power approaching the end of the last movement, which never fails to astonish me. It says much for this music, that so many groups find so many different emphases in it, and that nearly all of them make it "work".

That was very much my reaction (and discovery) on listening to so many versions.
Hurrah for streaming!