The “intimate” music of the Czech and the Finn is like two-way mirror where all is said without ever being seen, all is seen without ever being said. Nothing less.” The String Quartet in D minor “Voce Intimae” Op.56 by Jean Sibelius, which was completed in 1909, has five movements and also stems from the composer’s most inner intimacy, that of “Interior voices.” The Kocian Quartet takes charge of these works with all the expressive weight they require, and their musical discourse provides just the right amount of feelings divulged. That, in short, is a summary of this composition written for a limited number of instruments – the string quartet they must get along, as would a circle of friends, something that has real importance. The fourth movement: awakening of the real force of a national music, joy in observing that the path followed lead to success, until the moment of the brutal interruption brought on by the catastrophe beginning of deafness, perspective of a sad future, little hope of improvement, and, in the end, a feeling that was deeply painful. The second movement, quasi-polka, takes me once again to the joyous tumult of my youth when I was composing innumerable Czech dances and I myself had a reputation as an untiring dancer… The third movement, largo sostenuto, is a recollection of my first love for a young girl who later became my dear wife. Review by JJ Aug(3 of 6 found this review helpful)īedrich Smetana’s String Quartet N☁, subtitled “In My Life,” dating from the year 1876, is a program work the composer commented on as such: “What I wanted to do is to retrace in music the course of my life: First movement: taste for art in my youth, romantic atmosphere, unspeakable nostalgia… In parallel, this prologue augurs a warning of future unhappiness, this E note in the finale: it is this fateful, strident squeal that went off in my ears in 1874, marking the beginning of my deafness. I have noticed this rather sloppy production problem on another Praga release too: Schnittke: Chamber Music - Janacek Trio By contrast, here, the Smetana runs immediately and straight into the Sibelius. and certainly such a gap between different works. Normally, on CDs, there is a few seconds gap between movements. The Kocian version seems rushed (5minutes 57seconds for the first movement versus 8 minutes by the Fitzwilliam), it almost always sounds forced, and shrill. Here, I compared to the Fitzwilliam String Quartet who give a pensive, moving and beautiful account of the Sibelius. but it is the performance that is wanting. The sound and recording quality is quite good (albeit overly reverberant and sometimes boomy). It lacks the warmth and richness of the Jullliard. Their playing is comparatively rough, their tone strident, the intonation sometimes slippery and sometimes woeful (such as the second mvt of the Smetana), and their performance comes across as unpolished and forced. Period: Early 20th century: Piece Style Early 20th century: Instrumentation string quartet. Duration: 5 minutes Composer Time Period Comp. 1922 Dedication Walter Parvainen Average Duration Avg. The Kocian do not, unfortunately, come off well from the comparison. (string quartet) in Helsinki (string orch.) Finnish National Radio Orchestra, Jean Sibelius (conductor) First Pub lication. The quartet also gets high praise in Classica-Répertoire, for their ‘homogeneous and very sensitive playing’ in a repertoire of ‘great beauty and a surprisingly classical balance’.I am comparing the Kocian Quartet's performance of the Smetana to the Julliard Quartet's recording (LP). Indeed, the reviewer in the German magazine Ensemble described the previous volume as ‘a voyage of discovery that could hardly have been any finer’, commending the Tempera Quartet for outstanding performances. Guided by the erudite liner notes of Sibelius expert Andrew Barnett, it is also possible to discover the links between these neglected gems and some of the masterpieces. Many of them have never been recorded before, and this release thus presents a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the unknown facets of a great composer. In fact, the String Quartet in A minor, which closes the present disc, was composed as a graduation work.Īs in the case of the previous disc (BIS-CD-1376), several of these pieces first came to light after the donation of autograph manuscripts to Helsinki University. In our ongoing three-disc survey of Sibelius’s music for string quartet, we have reached the years 1888-89, which saw the end of the composer’s studies at the Helsinki Music Institute.

Sibelius string quartets