Tchaikovsky String Quartets

[richardfinegold]

This music was a lacunae for me. Except for the Andante Cantabile from the First Quartet, which I only knew in Orchestral guise, I hadn't heard a note of the 3 quartets. My curiosity was stimulated after reading Rostislav Dubinsky's memoir which contains many references to them, so I bought the Borodin Qt on Chandos .
There is a lot of great music here, but it seems very unchamber like (have I coined a phrase?). There is a lot of solo instrument passages but very little interplay amongst the Quartet. His sextet souvenir de Florence does not seem this way to me so I found this very surprising.

[Lento]

Apparently the 1st quartet is known as the "squeezebox" owing to its accordion-like opening, the rhythm of which confused me when I first heard it, I have to confess. Don't know the others.

[french frank]

Apparently the 1st quartet is known as the "squeezebox" owing to its accordion-like opening, the rhythm of which confused me when I first heard it, I have to confess. Don't know the others.

I only know the first as well. Really don't like the orchestration. And not having heard the quartet for ages, I wonder if I don't find it a bit ... overfamiliar (if that's not a contradiction).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There is a lot of great music here, but it seems very unchamber like (have I coined a phrase?). There is a lot of solo instrument passages but very little interplay amongst the Quartet. His sextet souvenir de Florence does not seem this way to me so I found this very surprising.

I agree - Tchaikovsky seems less comfortable to me with the intimacies of the Quartet medium than with the colour wheel of the orchestra. The Souvenir is a lovely work of genuine chamber Music, but the Quartets seem to struggle against the medium for which they were ostensibly written. (And not in the good way that, say, the Grosse Fuge or Schoenberg's second Quartet struggles with the medium, but rather in the way that they sound to me like orchestral material making do with a Quartet playing it.)

Borodin (and Dvorak and Smetana for that matter) IMO was a much better composer of String Quartets.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I hear the Andante Cantabile from the first String Quartet at my first ever concert: Halle/Weldon 1960 - an all Tchaikovsky affair. I had assumed the "orchestration" was to play the string quartet version with a larger number of strings. Am I wrong?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I hear the Andante Cantabile from the first String Quartet at my first ever concert: Halle/Weldon 1960 - an all Tchaikovsky affair. I had assumed the "orchestration" was to play the string quartet version with a larger number of strings. Am I wrong?

I thought so, too - with disreet addition of Double Basses if the hall acoustic so requires? (I actually prefer it played this way.)

[Roehre]

I hear the Andante Cantabile from the first String Quartet at my first ever concert: Halle/Weldon 1960 - an all Tchaikovsky affair. I had assumed the "orchestration" was to play the string quartet version with a larger number of strings. Am I wrong?

There exists (authorized by Tchaikovsky) a straightforward "orchestration" consisting of a larger number of strings with an added bass. He himself arranged it also for cello solo with string orchestra.

apart from this, a number of alternatives (mainly simply doubling or so of the string parts with added basses) exist, including an orchestral one by arch-arranger Leopold Stokowski

[cloughie]

There exists (authorized by Tchaikovsky) a straightforward "orchestration" consisting of a larger number of strings with an added bass. He himself arranged it also for cello solo with string orchestra.

apart from this, a number of alternatives (mainly simply doubling or so of the string parts with added basses) exist, including an orchestral one by arch-arranger Leopold Stokowski

I have the SQ1 in an orchestrated version - KremlinCO/Rachlevsky - don't think I've heard it since I bought it - I'll give it a spin and report back!
It is an all Tchaikovsky CD coupling the Elegy, Scherzo Op42/2 and Serenade for Strings. I also have ZagSols/ Ninic coupling orchestral versions of Souvenir de Florence and Borodin SQ2. I'll give them a listen also.

[CallMePaul]

These quartets are not often heard outside Russia in live performance, but the Danels gave the cycle at Manchester University 2 seasons ago. I heard the first two but unfortunately was away when they did the third, which is my favourite. It is in the rare and difficult (for string players) key of E-flat minor. I still have a box set of 3 LP's from the Borodin Quartet on HMV/Melodiya. Unfortunately this was marred by some weird and unnecessary side-breaks but if Melodiya has or plan to reissue them on CD their engineers need to look at this carefully.

[LeMartinPecheur]

These quartets are not often heard outside Russia in live performance, but the Danels gave the cycle at Manchester University 2 seasons ago. I heard the first two but unfortunately was away when they did the third, which is my favourite. It is in the rare and difficult (for string players) key of E-flat minor.

You may think that CMP, but I have a CD of No's 2 and 3 by the Tanejev Quartet on Leningrad Masters where box and booklet tell us that it's in a much rarer key, E sharp minor

Can't find an image showing it (the CD front just says Quartets 2 and 3) but here's the track-listing from Amazon.ca:
1. Str Qt No.2 in F, Op.22: Adagio-Moderato Assai2. Str Qt No.2 in F, Op.22: Scherzo: Allegro Guisto3. Str Qt No.2 in F, Op.22: Andante Ma Non Tanto4. Str Qt No.2 in F, Op.22: Finale: Allegro Con Moto5. Str Qt No.3 in e#, Op.30: Andante Sostenuto-Allegro Moderato6. Str Qt No.3 in e#, Op.30: Allegretto Vivo E Scherzando7. Str Qt No.3 in e#, Op.30: Andante Funebre E Doloroso Ma Con Moto8. Str Qt No.3 in e#, Op.30: Finale: Allegro Non Troppo E Risoluto

[gurnemanz]

Borodins on Teldec from 1993 were my first set and are great. Asking price has gone a bit bonkers. Keller also good and cheaper.

[richardfinegold]

These quartets are not often heard outside Russia in live performance, but the Danels gave the cycle at Manchester University 2 seasons ago. I heard the first two but unfortunately was away when they did the third, which is my favourite. It is in the rare and difficult (for string players) key of E-flat minor. I still have a box set of 3 LP's from the Borodin Quartet on HMV/Melodiya. Unfortunately this was marred by some weird and unnecessary side-breaks but if Melodiya has or plan to reissue them on CD their engineers need to look at this carefully.

I suspect that the Borodin lps you reference are the same CDs that I bought on Chandos. No side breaks, and the souvenir de Florence is the "filler" (IMO,it is the highlight of the set).

[richardfinegold]

[QUOTE=ferneyhoughgeliebte;406178]I agree - Tchaikovsky seems less comfortable to me with the intimacies of the Quartet medium than with the colour wheel of the orchestra. The Souvenir is a lovely work of genuine chamber Music, but the Quartets seem to struggle against the medium for which they were ostensibly written. (And not in the good way that, say, the Grosse Fuge or Schoenberg's second Quartet struggles with the medium, but rather in the way that they sound to me like orchestral material making do with a Quartet playing it.)

Borodin (and Dvorak and Smetana for that matter) IMO was a much better composer of String Quartets.[/

In a way, this music reminds me of the Shostakovich Quartets, in that while the latter are far better Chamber Music, they also have a lot of solo instrument extended parts. The idiom is of course very different, but still it is reasonable to assume that DSCH must have had a lot of exposure to this music during his formative years.