Russian String Quartets (2011)

Nikolai Afanasiev (1820-1898)
Volga. Quartet for 2 violins, viola and violoncello
1. Moderato
2. Allegretto
3. Adagio
4. Allegro non troppo

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
5. Chorale and Variations
6. Fugue „In the Monastery" out of the String Quartet No.2
(1878/1879)

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
7. Romanze. Andante espressivo
8. Scherzo. Allegro

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
String Quartet No.2 D-Dur
9. Allegro moderato
10. Scherzo. Allegro
11. Notturno. Andante
12. Finale. Andante

Leipziger Streichquartett:
Stefan Arzberger, violin
Tilman Büning, violin
Ivo Bauer, viola
Matthias Moosdorf, violoncello

November, 10-12, 2011, Konzerthaus der Abtei Marienmünster

Of the four Russian works offered on this 2012 release from MDG, the most famous is Alexander Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major; the sumptuous melody of its Notturno was used to great success in the song "And This Is My Beloved" in the Broadway musical Kismet. While this string quartet has a fairly secure place in the repertoire with frequent performances, the works by Nikolai Afanasiev, Nikolai Rimksy-Korsakov, and Sergey Rachmaninov are performed far less often. The Russians of the 19th century were not great practitioners in the genre, unlike the Viennese masters of the Classical era, and the music they wrote, while attractive in a sentimental parlor style, was neither innovative nor especially inspired. Afanasiev's Volga Quartet is laid out in the conventional four movements, and the Song of the Volga Boatmen is ingeniously woven through each variation. The quartet movements by Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov are less ambitious creations, and they are almost insubstantial when compared to the two fully fledged quartets. The Leipzig String Quartet plays with technical polish and a pleasant kind of expressivity, but the general blandness of the music gives them little opportunity to shine or plumb the depths. MDG's unprocessed audio captures the strings with natural warmth and resonance. --- Blair Sanderson, Rovi

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