David Matthews: Complete String Quartets, Volume Six
The American critic Robert Reilly described the music on Volume One of this cycle of the complete string quartets of David Matthews (b. 1943) as ‘some of the most concentrated, penetrating writing for this medium in the past 30 years or more. It is musical thinking of the highest order and quartet writing in the great tradition of Beethoven, Bartók, Britten, and Tippett’. The three works in this sixth volume of Matthews’ string quartets cover a quarter of a century but share the same basic features, not least a mastery of counterpoint, an impassioned lyricism, a sublimated hint of folksong and occasionally a sly sense of humour, all deployed to touch something essential in the listener. Matthews begins his booklet note with this release by saluting ‘my now nearly 30-year relationship with the Kreutzer Quartet, which has been as invaluable to me as Shostakovich’s with the Beethoven Quartet, or Beethoven’s with the Schuppanzigh Quartet’.
Kreutzer Quartet
Listen To This Recording:
String Quartet No. 8, Op. 75 (1997-98) (20:19)
- I. Leggiero con moto (7:15)
- II. Vivo (4:35)
- III. Adagio sostenuto (8:29)
String Quartet No. 16, Op. 161 (2021) (12:31)
- Andante con moto – (3:40)
- Molto vivace – (2:49)
- Lento con molto espressione (6:02)
String Quartet No. 17, Op. 164 (2022-23) (21:14)
- I. Flamboyant (5:05)
- II. Vivace (3:41)
- III. Adagio (8:15)
- IV. Andante con moto – Allegro con brio (4:13)
Bach arr. Matthews
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One, No. 24: Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV869 (c. 1722, arr. 2002)
- Praeludium (6:23)
- Fuga (6:12)
Patrick Waller :
Classic Toccata Classics. One of the greatest living writers of string quartets, excellent performances and sound. Bravo to all concerned. A must hear.