Bartók: Divertimento & Brahms: String Quintet No. 2

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The performance [of the Brahms] is indisputably strong, as one might expect from this ensemble. Despite the greater sonic weight there’s no danger of the musical argument being muddied…There’s... — Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2018 More…

Release Date: 22nd Jun 2018
Catalogue No: CCS37518
Label: Channel
Length: 55 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Bartók: Divertimento for Strings, Sz. 113

Work length24:17

$4.50

$6.90

$9.15

Candida Thompson
Amsterdam Sinfonietta

I. Allegro Non Troppo

Track length8:34

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

II. Molto Adagio

Track length8:22

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

III. Allegro Assai

Track length7:21

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111

Work length31:05

$6.05

$9.05

$12.25

Candida Thompson
Amsterdam Sinfonietta

I. Allegro Non Troppo Ma Con Brio

Track length12:58

$2.05

$3.05

$4.05

: II. Adagio

Track length6:30

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

: III. Un Poco Allegretto

Track length5:35

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

: IV. Vivace Ma Non Troppo Presto

Track length5:11

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

: IV. Vivace Ma Non Troppo Presto (Reprise)

Track length0:51

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

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These two musical giants, Brahms and Bartók, are among my personal favourites, bound by their love of folk music, from which they both drew creative inspiration. For this CD recording we have once again coupled together a string orchestral work and an arrangement of a chamber music piece, similar to the concept used for our Brahms - Schoenberg, Mahler - Beethoven CDs.

Bartók’s Divertimento for string orchestra is an exceptionally original work and it has been on our ‘bucket list’ to record for quite a long time, but choosing the moment when something is ‘in one’s blood’, so to speak, is not an easy decision because every time we have rehearsed and performed it we have discovered new things - it is such a mellifluously rich work! With pieces like this it is never the same journey twice. I am extremely happy we have finally put it onto a CD.

Brahms’s opus 111 is a string quintet hugely loved by us all. It is not often performed by a full string orchestra and is already overpowering in its original quintet form. I fell in love with this music many years ago and spent two weeks deciphering every corner of it in a masterclass with Isaac Stern. It is a very ambitious piece to record with a large group of string players - all the intricacies of the solo voices have to be found and polished, but in my view it lends itself to becoming – dare I say it – a ‘symphony for strings’ when one approaches it with so many more players. Some of the textures seem even more glorious. However, I leave it to you ‘the listener’ to decide for yourself!

Candida Thompson

Reviews

Awards Issue 2018

The performance [of the Brahms] is indisputably strong, as one might expect from this ensemble. Despite the greater sonic weight there’s no danger of the musical argument being muddied…There’s exuberance as well as care in the playing…The disc’s raison d’être, however, is the Bartók Divertimento, which gets a terrific performance here. The playing blends muscularity with detail, rhythms are trenchant and incisive.

Bartók: Divertimento & Brahms: String Quintet No. 2

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