Szymanowski: String Quartets / Stravinsky: Concertino

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Cat No: 8554315

Release Date: 07 January 2000

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943431528

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SZYMANOWSKI

Description
Karol Szymanowski(1882-1937)Igor Stravinsky(1882-1971) Music for StringQuartetKarol Szymanowski was born in 1882 to an aristocratic Polish family inthe Ukraine. Owing to a leg injury at the age of four his early education wasat home, where he began to study the piano under his father's direction. Laterhe was sent to his uncle Gustav Neuhaus's music school to study both piano andtheory, and under Neuhaus's tutelage was introduced to the works of Bach,Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and, naturally, Chopin. His first published work wasa set of nine Chopinesque Preludes, written between 1896 and 1900,although not published until 1906. In 1901 he moved to Warsaw for furtherstudy, taking lessons from both Zygmunt Noskowski (counterpoint andcomposition) and Marek Zawirski (harmony). Together with Fitelberg and with twoother students of Noskowski (Ludomir Rozycki and Apolinary Szeluto),Szymanowski established the group known as 'Young Poland in Music', in order topublish and promote new Polish music.Early influences included the music of his compatriot, Chopin, and othercomposers such as Wagner, Strauss, Reger and Scriabin. Szymanowski reached hiscreative maturity in a series of works written in 1915 that included Metopesfor piano, Myths for violin and piano, and Songs of the FairyPrincess for coloratura soprano and piano, works which reflect his newinterest in Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. Hearing the latter's Les Noces duringa trip to Paris in 1921 inspired him to write a series of works drawing on thefolk-music of the Tatra mountains in southern Poland, thus instigating a thirdcreative phase. Szymanowski died at a Lausanne sanatorium in 1937 at the age of54, having succumbed to a tubercular infection.The two string quartets make up the sum total of Szymanowski'scontribution to the chamber music repertoire. The String Quartet No. 1(1917) received its first performance in Warsaw in March 1924. Atransitional work, it moves away from impressionistic effects and seems toanticipate the forthcoming discovery of folksong. The opening Lento assai iscast in sonata form, whilst the bipartite slow movement, as its subtitle inmoda d'una canzona suggests, possesses a rare melodic beauty. The lastmovement is a scherzo (a projected fourth movement was never written), afugal sonata allegro in which each instrumental part is written in a differentkey, rising in minor thirds: C-E flat - F sharp-A.Strong Tatra folk music elements are to be found in the StringQuartet No. 2 (1927), although the first movement seems to seek arapprochement with the harmonic world of his impressionist period. The ostinatoaccompaniments and rhythmic energy of the second movement clearly show anacquaintance with the music of Bartok, whilst the slow fugal finale employs a folk-melodyas its main subject and incorporates other Tatra melodies heard also in theone-act ballet, Harnasie (1923-31).The Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was the son of theprincipal bass at the Imperial Opera, S
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