Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev – Complete String Quartets, Vol. 4 – Carpe Diem String Quartet (2015) [HighResAudio FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev – Complete String Quartets, Vol. 4 – Carpe Diem String Quartet (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:04 minutes | 1,1 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: highresaudio.com | Digital booklet | © Naxos

A pupil of Tchaikovsky, who called him the ‘Russian Bach’, Sergey Taneyev is best known today for his four symphonies, although he also composed a sizeable body of chamber music, including nine complete String Quartets. Quartet No. 9 is a memorably melodic work, while the beautifully crafted Quartet No. 6, his last completed quartet, is rather more austere, though marked by a playful Jig, and even more masterful in construction.

And so we come to the penultimate release in the complete string quartets by Sergey Taneyev, the Carpe Diem quartet breathing new life into forgotten music. Highly regarded in his younger days, having been a piano student of Nikolai Rubinstein and composition pupil of Tchaikovsky, he eventually became the influential Director of the Moscow Music Conservatory. It was there that his famous pupils, Rachmaninov, Gliere and Scriabin, proved his undoing. They were to bring new and hugely popular music onto the Russian scene, but their mentor could not move from the era in which he was a student. So he was to continue in an elegant view of Russian nationalism, and because he did not join in that new regime is no reason for us to forget his beautifully crafted music. Just turn to the disc’s soulful second track—the slow movement of the Ninth Quartet—and the bubbling scherzo that follows, to find the most readily attractive music ever composed for string quartet. There is, however, a problem with the numbering of the quartets, as the Ninth was among several that remained unpublished at the time of his death, and they were unfortunately given later numbers, the Sixth, in chronological order, being his last quartet. It dates from the first years of the 20th century and some twenty years after the Ninth, by which time he was often falling back on academia as the basis of music that had become rather threadbare in terms of thematic material. So here we have a strong and purposeful opening movement, that looks set fair for an imposing work, but then follows a rather uninteresting slow movement. A happy scherzo prepares for a return to the mood of the opening for the finale. With the young Carpe Diem’s obvious enthusiasm we must be most grateful for this enterprising series. © 2015 David’s Review Corner

Tracklist:

Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1915)
String Quartet No. 9 in A major (1883)
1. I. Allegro moderato 08:35
2. II. Andante 06:41
3. III. Scherzo: Allegro con fuoco 07:34
4. IV. Allegro giocoso 08:14

String Quartet No. 6 in B flat major, Op. 19 (1905)
5. I. Allegro giusto 11:18
6. II. Adagio serioso 08:38
7. III. Giga: Molto vivace 06:03
8. IV. Allegro moderato 08:41

Personnel:
Charles Wetherbee, Violin I
Amy Galluzzo, Violin II
Korine Fujiwara, Viola
Carol Ou, Cello

Download:

mqs.link_TaneyevCmpleteStringQuartetsVl.4CarpeDiemStringQuartet20159624.part1.rar
mqs.link_TaneyevCmpleteStringQuartetsVl.4CarpeDiemStringQuartet20159624.part2.rar