Schönberg String Quartets!
String Quartets Nos. 3 & 4
Arnold Schoenberg (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was a major force in the development of contemporary classical music, His third string quartet dates from 1927, after he had worked out the basic principles of his uniquely new twelve-tone technique. The themes of this work consist mainly of rhythmic patterns rather than pitch, which are reused in variation just as in Classical music. Indeed, Schoenberg had taken Classical forms as a model for this work.
The third and fourth quartets are often regarded as examples of Schoenberg’s unwillingness to jettison the outlines of classical form as completely as he had abandoned traditional tonality, yet here the two works sound fresh and vital, with solid phrasing and rhythmically unique.
Cellist Fred Sherry is one of the most distinguished American chamber musicians, and a pioneering member of a number of new-music ensembles. The string quartet that bears his name is a group of outstanding younger players recruited by Sherry specifically to play these Schoenberg works. The Sherry Quartet presents both Schoenberg quartets with total naturalness, giving the music all the space it needs to breathe and express itself.
Here is the Aron Quartet playing the Schönberg String quartet Number 3, Op. 30, first movement
And here is the LaSalle Quartet, performing Arnold Schönberg’s String Quartet no. 4
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Tags: Schönberg String Quartets, Fred Sherry, Sherry Quartet