Track Listing

1. Movement 1
2. Movement 2
3. Movement 3
4. Lent et soutenu. Mod�r�ment anim�
5. Lent et Calme
6. Assez mod�r� et dans le sentiment d'un chant populaire. Assez vite
7. Assez lent et librement d�clam�. Vif et joyeusement anim�

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #351678 in Music
• Released on: 2000-07-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.com
Here's an enormously rewarding pairing of two notable op. 35s by two underrated French masters. Listening to the ambitious First Quartet (1890-1) of Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931), Sibelius's famous comments regarding his own Fourth Symphony spring to mind: "It has nothing, absolutely nothing of the circus about it." This is indeed a formidably serious utterance, positively Beethovenian in spirit and scope, densely plotted and always resourcefully argued. However, for all the music's somewhat ascetic leanings, it's counterbalanced by an appealing lyrical flow and even the occasional dash of humor. In short, a substantial achievement, well worth getting to know. (By the way, annotator Roger Nichols intriguingly wonders whether the first violin's closing upward flourish was subconsciously borrowed by Debussy for the ending of his own string quartet.) A victim of a bizarre cycling accident at age 44, Ernest Chausson (1855-99) managed to write nearly three of the four movements of his projected String Quartet (the scherzo was posthumously completed by his friend d'Indy). It's another noble, beautifully crafted creation, boasting a particularly affecting slow movement. The Chilingirian Quartet performs both works to the manner born, and the sound is consistently lifelike. Do investigate. --Andrew Achenbach

Customer Reviews

A Zeitgeist of Expressionism...
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The art realized on this disc neatly illustrates an aspect of why the Fin de Siècle-Belle Époque (c. 1885-1915) is such a fascinating period in the intellectual history of Western civilization: there existed a zeitgeist of evolutionary transformation from later-Romanticism unto hyper-Romanticism--i.e., Expressionism, while simultaneously befell a deep melancholy yearning for tender beauty which found utterance in the various styles of Art Nouveau.
Such a period is unique in human events--(and, by the way, this manifests the validity of Hegel's teleological philosophy of history).
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So: D'Indy and Chausson: Parisians whose ethos perfectly represents that cool Northern-Gallic love of precision, clarity, transparency, and logic.
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These their String Quartets exibit in form fine part-writing with application of piquant string technique. Heirs of Beethoven, in content they suggest the aforementioned duality of Expressionism and Art Nouveau.
The zeitgeist which contemporaneously effected Debussy, Schönberg, and Skryabin hangs over all.
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See too:
Lectures on the Philosophy of World History (Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics)
The Decline of the West (Oxford Paperbacks)
A Study of History Abridgement of Volumes I-VI
A History of Civilizations
The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914
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Franck: Quintet in Fm; Chausson: String quartet in Cm
Franck, Chausson: String Quartets
Chausson: String quartet in Cm; Faure: Poème d'un jour No1,Op21/1
Chausson: String Quartets; Roussel: String Quartets [United Kingdom]
Ernest Chausson: Chamber Music
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(Cover-art nice Impressionistic-Realistic "Fishing" [1878] by Gustave Caillebotte.)
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