David MATTHEWS: Complete String Quartets, Volume Four
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’. This fourth CD in the series presents Matthews’ String Quartet No. 11, a set of variations on the eighth of Beethoven’s Op. 119 Bagatelles, as well as his own contribution to the ‘Diabelli’ Variations and his complete Beethoven transcriptions for string quartet.
Kreutzer Quartet
Listen To This Recording:
-
Bagatelles, Op. 119:
- 1 Allegretto
- 2 Andante con moto
- 3 A l’Allemande
- 4 Andante cantabile
- 5 Risoluto
- 6 Andante/Allegretto
- 7 Allegro, ma non troppo
- 8 Moderato cantabile
- 9 Vivace moderato
- 10 Allegramente
- 11 Andante, ma non troppo
- Diabelli Variation
- I Etwas lebhaft und mit der innigsten Empfindung
- II Lebhaft. Marschmassig
- III Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll
- IV Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit
- II Adagio con molta espressione
- Theme: Allegretto cantabile
- Var 1: Listesso tempo
- Var 2: Poco piu moderato
- Var 3: Presto
- Var 4: Allegro strepitoso
- Var 5: Tempo di tango feroce
- Var 6: Con moto languido
- Var 7: Misterioso
- Var 8: Tempo di mazurka
- Var 9: Scorrevole
- Var 10 Sostenuto
- Var 11: Quieto
- Var 12: Cavatina: Adagio
- Var 13: Fuga: Molto Vivace
- Var 13: Fuga: Andante tranquillo
- Var 13: Fuga: Tempo primo
Diabelli Variation
Complete Beethoven Transcriptions
Piano Sonata 28 in A major, Op. 101:
Piano Sonata 11 in B flat major, Op. 22:
David Matthews
String Quartet No. 11, Op. 108:
Guardian :
‘Beethoven has been a lifelong source of inspiration for David Matthews, so it was natural for him to take a bagatelle by his hero as the starting point for his own monumental String Quartet No 11, a set of 13 variations, similar in scale to Beethoven’s late B flat Op 130 and C sharp minor Op 131 quartets. It’s a startling, broad work, travelling towards its blazingly optimistic finale via all manner of dance forms and even a touch of serialism, with a profound reworking of the cavatina from the Op 130 quartet at its core. It’s a tremendous achievement; revering Beethoven while taking him gently by the hand and leading him into the 21st century.’
—Stephen Pritchard, The Guardian
Fanfare Magazine :
‘Listening to Matthews’s versions of the op. 119 Bagatelles and the 28th Piano Sonata you have the slightly unnerving sensation that you’re listening to recently discovered—and undoubtedly authentic—original Beethoven works […] everything sounds exactly the way Beethoven would do it were he writing for string quartet. Each of the bagatelles emerge with even more color and character than they can manage in the original piano versions, while the sonata becomes one of Beethoven’s most engaging late quartets. (Matthews’s incredible skill almost forces you to begin thinking that way.)’
—Jim Svejda, Fanfare Magazine, June 2016