Special offer. Metamorphosis
Cuarteto Casals
The Bartok Fourth Quartet receives a relatively 'classical', even cool account - not as relentlessly hard-driven as some other recent accounts of the piece but in itself perfectly valid (and...
Special offer. Metamorphosis
Cuarteto Casals
Purchase product
The Bartok Fourth Quartet receives a relatively 'classical', even cool account - not as relentlessly hard-driven as some other recent accounts of the piece but in itself perfectly valid (and...
About
It is sometimes said that the essence of ‘classical' music lies in the principle of variation; but when the idea of incessant transformation of the musical material irrigates scores like these quartets by three eminent Hungarian composers of the 20th century, the resulting sonic impressions are very different. The governing principle here is metamorphosis, an idea as dear to Bartók as it was to the compatriots who succeeded him.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
October 2010
The Bartok Fourth Quartet receives a relatively 'classical', even cool account - not as relentlessly hard-driven as some other recent accounts of the piece but in itself perfectly valid (and certainly not as exhausting). On the technical elevel, it is practically perfect.
30th July 2010
Bartók's piece has perhaps the most unsettling opening of any string quartet – a discomfiting premonition of the technical challenges ahead, from the furtive prestissimo to the biting pizzicatos of the allegretto, all navigated with sensitivity to the changing moodscape by the Quarteto Casals
The Independent on Sunday 3rd October 2010
Cuarteto Casals hold their big-boned, heart-on-sleeve sound in reserve for much of this disc, unleashing it only in the brutal blur of the second movement of Métamorphoses nocturnes.
