String Quartets Vol. 1

 

 

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Carl Nielsen was, and still is, best known for his six symphonies. Great works that the symphonies are, Nielsen wrote prolifically in almost every genre, his Wind Quintet the best known of his chamber works. However, I highly recommend purchasing both the Nielsen String Quartet CD's

These two great CD's feature the young, up-and-coming Oslo String Quartet. They play wonderfully together, and they have a thorough mastery of their instruments, the string quartet idiom, and, most importantly in this case, the Nielsen String Quartets. They play wonderfully in tune and create music cooperatively very well. The Oslo String Quartet uses a wide range of dynamics in bringing out Nielsen's music. It is a wonder that these works are not better known and more often heard!

If you are familiar with Carl Nielsen's music and style, you should know what to expect: strange, winding, and engaging melodies, rhythmic complexities, optimistic simplicity, sad mourning, and frequent chordal modulations.

These CD's are real winners (and so are Naxos and the members of the Oslo String Quartet) for making such excellent and affordable renditions of these works available to the public. You will pay two or three times this if you look to other CD labels, and you may not get a better quality set of performances, either!! I highly recommend these two CD's of Carl Nielsen's string quartets.

Being a lover of Nielsen's symphonies and other orchestral works, I was a little put off initially at not finding the composer I know in these chamber works. The quartets aren't pieces at the core of the repertoire (and in this country not even at the fringes), but as with any good music new to one, repeated hearings bring out more and more of the idiom of the composer in question. So I've at last found the Nielsen of the symphonies in these quartets. Interestingly, while the Op. 14 (1899) understandably reminds me of Nielsen's first three symphonies, Op. 44 (1906, revised in 1919) reminds me not of the wartime symphonies but of Symphony No. 6, written in the mid 20s. It has the gentle pastoral quality of this work with much of the quiet humor as well. Perhaps it also shares some of these qualities with the lovely, pastoral Symphony No. 3 (1911), though that symphony has as well the energy and elan of the first five symphonies, especially 4 and 5, with their life-asserting finales. Op. 44 is a much less demonstrative work and takes a bit longer to grow on one. In fact, while Nielsen said of the work that it represents his true grasp of string quartet writing, and despite the fact that it is beautifully and graciously written for the forces involved, I prefer the earlier quartet. It has a stirring Allegro con brio first movement that reminds me of the Symphony No. 2's energetic first movement and a surprising scherzo in which the fast music comes in the trio. (Shades of Berwald, who sometimes encapsulates his scherzos within slow movements?) But both works are genuine Nielsen, witty and wonderfully melodic, both with distinguished slow movements of almost religious intensity. The Olso quartet, founded 1991, is made up of members who are busy in various Scandanavian orchestras but who are obviously seasoned chamber players as well and certainly play gorgeously together. Their playing in the Op. 44--where the lines often intertwine, requiring superb ensemble playing--is everything one could ask. They produce a very fresh, young sound in music that will be fresh to most listeners. Naxos's engineering is fine as well. Recommended for Nielsen lovers and for those seeking rewarding new chamber-musical paths to explore.

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