Glazunov: 5 Novelettes / String Quintet in A Major
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ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV
Glazunov: 5 Novelettes / String Quintet in A Major
Fine Arts Quartet
[ Naxos / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 26 February 2007
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A composer of precocious talent, Glazunov came of a generation that was able to benefit from the inspiration of the Russioan nationalost composers and the increased professionalism of the conservatories. His attractive Five Novelettes, a set of finely crafted genre pieces with hints of Spanish, Hungarian and Oriental dance rythms, were written when he was sixteen. His String Quintet of ten years later shows similar assurance. Like Schubert's it is scored for two cellos, an instrument for which Glazunov had a particular fondness.
"Glazunov's warmly attractive lyricism as well as his technical mastery come out winningly in both these works, not least the Novelettes charming genre pieces, each echoing a different national dance, Spanish, Hungarian, Oriental, and so on. The String Quintet of 1891, like Schubert's great C major Quintet, adds a second cello to the string quartet. It is beautifully fashioned and mellifluous, with the first movement introduced by the viola unaccompanied, a sonata movement full of attractive themes. The second-movement Scherzo with its pizzicato writing leads on to the Andante sostenuto, the longest and weightiest of the four. The work is brilliantly rounded off with a Russian dance. The Fine Arts Quartet plus Nathanial Rosen on the second cello give brilliant performances, warmly understanding as well as polished, and very well recorded in New York." Penguin Guide
"The Fine Arts Quartet is a highly accomplished ensemble. On the evidence of these superb performances and other recent releases such as the SchumannString Quartets 1-3 they prove themselves to be in the same elevated league as ensembles such as the Emerson, Škampa, Talich, Takács…There are only a small number of alternative versions of Glazunov's String Quintet and Five Novelettes and none that I consider an improvement over this superb Naxos release" MusicWeb
Tracks:
5 Novelettes
String Quintet in A Major
