Minetti Quartet - Berg, Shostakovich & Ligeti: String Quartets (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 7 lasts no more than twelve minutes. The composer wrote it in March 1960 and dedicated it to his first wife Nina Vasilyevna Varzar - or rather, to her memory, for she had died five years earlier of an insidious form of cancer; suddenly, and without warning. It is a very personal work, one that is close to the composer's heart, for here Shostakovich breaks the strict sequence of keys he imposed on himself. Alban Berg's String Quartet No.1 has 2 movements, bears the opus number 3, and is nevertheless considered the composer's first autonomous work, even though the composer himself points out that he received it personally from Schönberg. An homage to Arnold Schönberg, then, who propelled his pupil into an independent career with this journeyman piece? Or is it really a declaration of love? While working on his Opus 3, Alban has already been hopelessly in love with Helene for a long while. Georg Alexander, alias György Sandor Ligeti, completed his first string quartet in 1954, when he was still living in Budapest at the age of thirty-one and recently divorced. For the second time! His first marriage, to his childhood sweetheart Brigitte, lasted only three years, and the second, to the psychology student Veronika Spitz, was entered into for purely political reasons. In 1952, Veronika, who came from a family of former factory owners, was in danger of being deported to a labour camp by the communist regime in Hungary as a representative of the bourgeoisie, and it was only by getting married to Ligeti that a semblance of protection could be afforded to her. As soon as the danger is averted following the death of Stalin, they divorce as agreed.

Tracklist:
01. Streichquartett, Op. 3: Langsam
02. Streichquartett, Op. 3: Mäßige Viertel
03. Streichquartett No. 7, Op. 108: Allegretto
04. Streichquartett No. 7, Op. 108: Lemto
05. Streichquartett No. 7, Op. 108: Allegro - Allegretto
06. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Allegro grazioso
07. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Vivace
08. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Adagio, mesto
09. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Presto
10. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Prestissimo
11. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Andante tranquillo
12. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Tempo di valse, moderato con eleganza, un poco capriccioso
13. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Subito prestissimo
14. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Allegretto, un poco gioviale
15. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Prestissimo
16. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Ad libitum, senza misura
17. Streichquartett No. 1 - Metamorphoses nocturnes: Lento


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