Pleyel: String Quartets, Op. 2, Nos. 4-6

Enso Quartet

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Cat No: 8557497

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Release Date: 01 January 2006

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313249725

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: PLEYEL

Description
Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831)String Quartets, Op. 2 Nos. 4-6The string quartets of Ignaz Pleyel occupy a centralplace in his prolific musical output. Pleyel's interest inthe medium is unsurprising given that he studied withJoseph Haydn for several years in the 1770s. What ismore surprising in a composer routinely dismissed asderivative and largely content to ape the style of histeacher is that Haydn's influence on his approach toquartet composition was rather less marked than onemight expect. Pleyel, clearly, was not convinced thatHaydn had all the answers and this doubt manifesteditself very early in his career.In 1776 Pleyel completed his studies with Haydnand enjoyed a great personal triumph with thesuccessful staging of his marionette opera Die FeeUrg?¿le at the National Theater in Vienna. Anappointment as Kapellmeister to Count Erdody soonfollowed and for a time at least Pleyel seemed set topursue a similar professional path to Haydn. Themusical resources at his disposal were excellent andErdody himself was an exceptionally generous andcultivated patron. Nonetheless, much to his surprise,Pleyel requested extended leave of absence as early as1778 on the grounds that he needed to undertake furtherstudies to perfect his art. After prolonged discussionPleyel was granted leave and headed off to Italy wherehe spent much of the next few years travellingextensively, composing and experiencing Italianmusical life at first hand. Pleyel's Italian experiencesexerted a powerful influence on his evolution as acomposer. Like Mozart he possessed an uncanny abilityto assimilate stylistic influences and his profoundunderstanding of the nuances of the Italian style isnowhere more evident than in his opera Ifigenia inAulide composed in 1785 for the Teatro San Carlo inNaples. While one might reasonably expect to see suchinfluences in the realm of opera - for opera sodominated Italian musical life that to ignore its stylesand conventions would be to court disaster - Pleyel'sfascination with Italian music ran far deeper and it leftindelible traces in many of his instrumental worksincluding the string quartets.We do not know when Pleyel first began tocompose string quartets although at least one earlybiographical sketch claims that he took severalmanuscript quartets with him to Italy. These works,which remain unidentified, may have been composedduring his years with Haydn or perhaps during his timeas Kapellmeister to Count Erdody. Whichever the case,Pleyel's earliest quartets were composed duringHaydn's so-called 'Quartettenpause', the nearlydecade-long interval between the composition of theepochal Op.20 Quartets and the brilliant quartets ofOp.33. With the completion of the Op.20 Quartets in1772 Haydn recognized that he had reached a majorartistic impasse. He had immeasurably expanded theemotional and intellectual horizons of the medium buthe had done so using means that he felt offered limitedpotential for further development. His response was tostop composing quarte
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