Mieczysław Weinberg - String Quartets Vol. 3 (Quatuor Danel)

Information

Composer: Mieczysław Weinberg

• String Quartet No. 6 in E minor, Op. 35
• String Quartet No. 8, Op. 66
• String Quartet No. 15, Op. 124

Quatuor Danel

    Marc Danel, violin

    Gilles Millet, violin

    Vlad Bogdanas, viola

    Guy Danel, cello

Date: 2008

Label: CPO

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Review

Astonishing though it may seem, Mieczys√aw Weinberg’s Sixth Quartet had to wait over 60 years before receiving what is believed to have been its world premiere performance by the Quatuor Danel in January 2007.

Composed during the troubled post-war cultural climate of the Soviet Union in 1946, it fell victim to proscription by Joseph Stalin’s notorious cultural henchman Andrei Zhdanov two years later and thereafter was unfairly consigned to the dustbin of history. Yet on the evidence of this extraordinary compelling and beautifully recorded performance, it’s an extremely powerful and deeply affecting work.

Conceived on an epic symphonic scale in six strongly defined movements, the Sixth encompasses a huge gamut of emotions from the almost brutal Shostakovichian violence and intensity of the middle of the opening Allegro semplice to the eerie disembodied sounds that appear at the end of the fifth movement. To my mind, this is one of the finest of the entire cycle brimming with distinctive musical ideas that have an immediate impact.

The other two quartets in the Quatuor Danel’s latest release are much more elusive, and perhaps should be experienced outside the orbit of the Sixth. Both have wonderful moments, especially the more elegiac Eighth. Outstandingly dedicated performances.

— Erik Levi

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Mieczysław Weinberg (8 December 1919 – 26 February 1996) was a Polish-born Soviet and Russian composer and pianist. Born in Warsaw to a family connected with Yiddish theatre, he fled Poland in 1939 following the German invasion and settled in the Soviet Union, where he gained the support of Dmitri Shostakovich. Weinberg became a prolific and respected composer, particularly during the 1960s, when his concert and film music achieved considerable recognition. His later years were marked by declining health and reduced official support. International appreciation of his music grew significantly in the 1990s.

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Quatuor Danel is a French/Belgian string quartet established in June 1991. The ensemble has worked with the Amadeus Quartet, the Borodin Quartet, as well as members of the Beethoven Quartet and the LaSalle Quartet. Known for classical, early modern and contemporary repertoire, they tour internationally and have an extensive discography. They have both recorded and performed the first complete cycle of string quartets by Mieczysław Weinberg, as well as a complete cycle of the quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich. Since 2005, the Danel has been "Quartet in Residence" at the University of Manchester.

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