Heath Quartet - Bartok: Complete String Quartets on CD

Description

Product Description The string quartet was of central importance to Bartók throughout his career. His six quartets were written (between 1907 and 1939) at crucial turning points in the composer s creative development. From the elegiac tone of Quartet no.1 (reflecting an unhappy love affair) to the sadness and wry parody of no.6, composed on the eve of World War II, by way of the mirror forms and atmospheric night music of nos.4 and 5, they represent perhaps the biggest interpretative challenge in the genre alongside the Beethoven quartets. A challenge triumphantly met here by the Heath Quartet. Future plans include complete cycles of Jörg Widmann s string quartets at Kilkenny Festival, Berlin s Boulez Saal and Wigmore Hall, as well as numerous appearances at summer festivals in the United Kingdom and beyond. Their debut recording of Tippett s string quartets (Wigmore Hall Live) received widespread acclaim and won the Gramophone Chamber Disk of the Year in 2016. A subsequent release on Harmonia Mundi of Tchaikovsky Quartets 1 & 3 was selected as Disk of the Week by both The Sunday Times and BBC Radio 3. Review 'everything the critics enthused about at the time [of the Wigmore Hall concerts] is present and correct: the sense of music on the edge, performances impeccably prepared but surfing a wave of adrenaline. The combination of Beethovenian intensity of No. 1 to the rustic folk rhythms and thrusting propulsion of No. 2, all the way to the eerie sadness and desolation of No. 6 … a fine achievement … the performance of the 6th and last quartet is quietly devastating.' BBC Radio 3, Record Review, 11th June 2017 ---------- 'The Heath Quartet play each with an electrifying intensity, maintaining an irresistible impetus and negotiating abrupt character changes with aplomb.' --Sunday Times, 4th June 2017 'their performances deserve to be considered alongside the best ... they are fine accounts ... The careful balancing of textures and clarity of the part writing are regularly impressive' The Guardian, 7th June 2017 **** ---------- 'I d call this a radical re-think of the Bartók quartet cycle ... Where the Heath Quartet scores is in its flexible approach, and the ease with which tempos relate to each other, especially in the largely romantic First Quartet, a work that in the wrong hands can seem episodic' --Classical Ear, 9th June 2017 **** 'The true joy of this survey by the Heath Quartet, taken from live recordings at the Wigmore Hall, is the pungency of performances that capture the essence of Bartók, from the desperation of youthful, unrequited love in the First Quartet, to the anguish of the last, written as war loomed. There is a freshness and immediacy running through every performance ... This is a substantial achievement by the Heath Quartet, which offers new insights into one composer s fascinating body of work' --The Scotsman, 12th June 2017 *****