Bridge: Quartets 2 & 3

1. String Quartet No. 3
Composed by Frank Bridge

2. String Quartet No. 2 in G minor
Composed by Frank Bridge

Bridge: Quartets 2 & 3,Frank Bridge,Meridian,Chamber,Chamber Music & Recitals,Classical,Classical Composers,Classical Music,Quartet for Four String Instruments

Average customer rating: Fine Phantasy ; String Quartets No Masterpieces Great introduction to a neglected master at a GREAT price Fine Frank Bridge Chamber Works Given Excellent Performances

Bridge: String Quartets 2 & 4 / Phantasy Piano Quartet Martin Roscoe , and Maggini Quartet Manufacturer: Naxos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music 4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music 4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: Bridge: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 3 Frank Bridge: Works for String Quartet Walton: Piano Quartet / String Quartet String Quartet 3 / Lyrical Interlude / Adagio Bridge: The Sea ASIN: B0007ORDV8 Release Date: 2005-03-22

Tracks:

1. Allegro Ben Moderato
2. Allegro Vivo - Andante Con Moto - Tempo 1
3. Molto Adagio - Allegro Vivace
4. Andante Con Moto - Allegro Vivace - L'Istesso Tempo - Tempo Dell'Introduzione - Andante Con Moto - Pochettino Allargando - Tranquillo
5. Allegro Energico (Tempo 1) - Largamente (Tempo 2)
6. Quasi Minuetto
7. Adagio Ma Non Troppo - Allegro Con Brio

Customer Reviews:

Fine Phantasy ; String Quartets No Masterpieces.......2007-02-16

The gem on this CD is the Phantasy Quartet which shows the influence of both Brahms and Faure. Bridge's second string quartet is hardly the masterpiece described in the liner notes. His fourth string quartet seems to be a collection of stylistic gestures rather than a coherent whole. Aside from the Phantasy Quartet, these are workmanlike but uninspired compositions. Bridge is not the only composer to have significantly shifted his style and language. During roughly the same period, Zemlinsky went through a similar transition and produced four very fine string quartets.

Great introduction to a neglected master at a GREAT price.......2005-05-10

There are many virtues of this CD, but perhaps the greatest is the breadth of exposure to Bridge's music at such a terrific price. The Phantasy is very reminiscent of the Brahms piano trios, but no one could mistake the Fourth Quartet for anyone other than Bridge. Together with the companion Naxos CDs of the Quartets #1 and 3 and the "Music for String Quartet", all performed by the very accomplished Maggini Quartet, you get the complete quartets plus so much memorable music for the price of a single high-end import. The music is alternately haunting, "music-hall"-ish, and nearly atonal. Really, my highest recommendation for anyone interested in 20th Century English music or just looking for something off of more well-visited paths.

Fine Frank Bridge Chamber Works Given Excellent Performances.......2005-04-11

Finally emerging from the shadow cast by Benjamin Britten, his most famous student, Frank Bridge (1879-1941) is now seen to be a major British composer of the first half of the twentieth century. Twenty-five years ago most music lovers had only heard of Bridge because Britten wrote a set of variations on one of his themes. Now, increasingly, his music is figuring on orchestral and chamber programs. His tone poems 'The Sea' and 'Enter Spring' are now heard with some regularity. Equally, his chamber music, a significant portion of his output, is now heard from time to time. Still, in fifty years of concert-going, I've never heard any of the present works played in concert, which is a pity as each of these three pieces is not only strongly written, but immediately attractive.

The earliest is the 'Phantasy for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello in F Sharp Minor' written in 1909-1910. One of the large number of compositions in the 16th-century 'phantasy' (or 'fancy') form by numbers of English composers at the behest of W. W. Cobbett who had founded an annual prize in 1907 for pieces in the form, the Phantasy Piano Quartet is in Bridge's early style, partaking of a Brahmsian melos colored by the English/Irish quality of Bridge's teacher, C. V. Stanford. In one movement, it is in an arch form that mimics the movements of a standard piano quartet but played without interruption. In its twelve minutes it contains a slow, dramatic introduction followed by a light-hearted scherzo and then a gradual slowing to a tranquil finish. Three members of the Maggini Quartet, partnered by the fine English pianist Martin Roscoe, give an impassioned performance.

The first major chamber work of Bridge's maturity, by the time the Second String Quartet came to be written Cobbett's competition allowed works either in sonata or phantasy form. The Quartet is in three-movement sonata form , with a sonata-allegro first movement, a fast middle movement, and an allegro vivace third movement that follows a slow introduction. Interestingly, though, the middle movement is itself in Cobbett's beloved phantasy form. The Quartet won the Cobbett Prize for 1915. More chromatic than the Phantasy Quartet, the Second Quartet marks an advance in Bridge's musical language and points the way to the really quite amazing advances he was to make following the end of the War and up to his death in 1941. In this Quartet Bridge's strong melodic ability is in evidence as is a still-evident easygoing romanticism. He was himself a violist, having played in both the Joachim and the English Quartets, and one can note that the viola has some extremely interesting things to say throughout.

The Fourth Quartet (1937) was Bridge's last string quartet and very nearly his last chamber piece. It partakes of a more highly chromatic, almost atonal, harmonic language than his acknowledged chamber masterpiece, the Second Piano Trio, written ten years before. Anthony Payne in his fine article on Bridge in the Grove Dictionary comments that Bridge showed 'determination to keep all 12 chromatic notes in play' in this quartet and yet managed to keep his 'essential Englishness.' Echoes of Alban Berg are heard in the luscious post-romantic hyper-chromaticism, and yet for anyone who knows Bridge's earlier works, it is still recognizably a work by him. In three movements, the quartet is classical in its outline, certainly more so than the Second Quartet, with a large and complex sonata-allegro first movement with dramatic first and lyrical second themes, followed by a minuet (albeit an eerie one) and a rondo finale. In the dark and uneasy minuet Bridge gives important things to the viola, one of his stylistic fingerprints. The rondo finale becomes increasingly upbeat and the quartet ends with a flourish. There is no question that this quartet is one of the high water marks of early twentieth-century English quartet writing.

The Maggini Quartet (named for a sixteenth-century Italian instrument maker) was formed in 1988 and has become one of the more reliably interesting quartets in Great Britain. They are in the midst of recording the series of ten 'Naxos Quartets' written for them by Peter Maxwell-Davies and commissioned by the Naxos label. The first two have been released and the next two are due for release shortly. They have also recorded the 'Phantasy Quartet' of Ralph Vaughan Williams (along with the rest of his quartet output) and have also recorded all the Britten quartets. The members are Laurence Jackson and David Angel, violins; Martin Outram, viola; and Michal Kaznowski, cello.

TT=59:33

Scott Morrison

Average customer rating: Sets the standard High Octane Beethoven or Jeggy? The Library Recordings vs The Studio Recordings Thoroughly enjoyed this collection.

Beethoven The Middle Quartets in Concert at the Library of Congress 1940-1960 Ludwig van Beethoven , and Budapest String Quartet Manufacturer: Bridge ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music All Works by Beethoven | Beethoven, Ludwig van | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music Budapest String Quartet | ( B ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music Similar Items: Great Performances From The Library Of Congress, Vol. 6: Budapest String Quartet In Concert At The Library of Congress Beethoven: String Quartets, Op. 18 Mozart Recordings (1940-1945) Great Performances From The Library Of Congress, Vol. 5: Budapest String Quartet Mozart: The 6 Haydn-Quartets; The 6 String Quintets ASIN: B00004UAHV Release Date: 2000-08-22

Tracks:

1. Qt No. 7 in F, Op. 59 No. 1: 1. Intro. Andante Con Moto; Allegro Vivace
2. Qt No. 7 in F, Op. 59 No. 1: 2. Allegretto Vivace E Sempre Scherzando
3. Qt No. 7 in F, Op. 59 No. 1: 3. Adagio Molto E Mesto
4. Qt No. 7 in F, Op. 59 No. 1: 4. Theme Russe: Allegro
5. Alexander Schneider Speaks About The Budapest Str Qts Early Years

Tracks:

1. Qt No. 9 in C, Op. 59 No. 3: 1. Intro: Andante Con Moto; Allegro Vivace
2. Qt No. 9 in C, Op. 59 No. 3: 2. Andante Con Moto Quasi Allegretto
3. Qt No. 9 in C, Op. 59 No. 3: 3. Menuetto: Grazioso
4. Qt No. 9 in C, Op. 59 No. 3: 4. Allegro Molto
5. Qt No. 8 in e, Op. 59 No. 2: 5. Allegro
6. Qt No. 8 in e, Op. 59 No. 2: 1. Molto Adagio
7. Qt No. 8 in e, Op. 59 No. 2: 2. Allegretto
8. Qt No. 8 in e, Op. 59 No. 2: 3. Finale: Presto

Tracks:

1. Qt No. 10 in E flat, Op. 74: 1. Poco Adagio; Allegro
2. Qt No. 10 in E flat, Op. 74: 2. Adagio Ma Non Troppo
3. Qt No. 10 in E flat, Op. 74: 3. Presto
4. Qt No. 10 in E flat, Op. 74: 4. Allegretto Con Var
5. Qt No. 11 in f, Op. 95: 1. Allegro Con Brio
6. Qt No. 11 in f, Op. 95: 2. Allegretto Ma Non Troppo
7. Qt No. 11 in f, Op. 95: 3. Allegro Assai Vivace Ma Serioso
8. Qt No. 11 in f, Op. 95: 4. Larghetto Espressivo; Allegretto Agitato

Amazon.com

The Budapest Quartet was formed in 1917 by three Hungarians and a Dutchman. When the group arrived in America in 1934, all four players were Russians. The Budapest became this country's first string quartet able to live entirely on performing; it owed its meteoric rise to fame in part to the nationwide broadcasts of its concerts. The players were also the first to hold residencies, one at the University of Buffalo, where they established an annual Beethoven cycle, and one lasting 22 years at the Library of Congress, where these three discs were recorded in live performance. Their style, which long set the standard for quartet playing and influenced generations of chamber musicians, was distinguished by its immaculate perfection of technique, tone, and ensemble, and by its aristocratic elegance and moderation. All these qualities are fully in evidence here: the scrupulous observance of Beethoven's markings; the beauty and purity of the individual and collective sound; the balance, clarity, and uncannily smooth taking over of voices; the supple steadiness of the rhythm. Their contrasts are subtle, they take almost no liberties, and they avoid outward effects, such as slides, and all extremes of tempo and dynamics. Their playing is noble, austere, and restrained, with a certain cool, impersonal detachment, but they can also get involved and carried away. The slow movements have great warmth, depth, and intensity of expression. The Scherzo of Op. 74 is tempestuous and sweeping, Op. 95 is headlong and menacing, the fast Codas take off like the wild wind. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

Sets the standard.......2004-08-26

These middle quartets of Beethoven, recorded here by the great Budapest Quartet between 1940 and 1960, in my opinion set the standard of playing for the middle quartets (as do their other recordings for the early and late quartets). The playing here is clean and incredibly precise, thus leaving the listener with a very satisfied feeling. Despite the fact that the sound quality is not quite up to the level of recordings being made today, one can still quite certainly tell that artistically and musically speaking, the recording is maybe the finest ever, due to the Budapest Quartet's musical intelligence and overall immaculate playing. I am happy to recommend this recording as the definitive set of the middle quartets, played by true champions of Beethoven.

High Octane Beethoven or Jeggy?.......2004-03-01

It's hard to decide whether these performances are powerful or just fast and glib, as some detractors say they are. The Buddas take these works at a faster clip than we are used to, and as a result sometimes some of the nuance is missing. It could also be argued they are sometimes guilty of using sheer "firepower" rather than interpretational depths in climactic moments. That's what the Jeggy crowd maintain. They compare these fleet performances to the high speed Beethoven of John Eliot Gardiner, who for me is just too superficial with his "rethinks" of Beethoven symphonies. But to me there's more meat on the bone, more than just briskness. The Budapests dig into the music with intense--almost too intense--feeling sometimes, even more in these live recordings than in their studio efforts. "High voltage" is such a cliche, but it's appropriate. These interpretations are interesting to me because while I find I don't always agree with them afterwards when I'm reflecting on the performances, while they're playing I'm too swept away to detach and critique. I'll agree that with the Buddas you often don't get certain nuances and intricacies, but to my ears they substitute their own brand of style and insightl whether you agree with it is another matter. With Jeggy, on the other hand, all I hear is speed and clarity--not bad in itself, but there's more to Beethoven's symphonies than speed and clarity, and I find his approach rather reductionist (which is different from small-scale and "less bloated," which his defenders would argue he is).

So this has turned out to be almost as much of a review of Gardiner as of the Budapests, but the short of it is these are fast, charged, "thin" performances, with edge, fire, and verve. Some niceties of phrasing get lost in their high-speed approach, and you'll definitely need additional recordings (Amadeus, Vegh, Julliard, Busch, Yale) to get a fuller appreciation of these, arguably among the very greatest masterworks in the string quartet literature. But these do have style and conviction--not the last word, not the first word, but definitely a set worth having. The live sound, as others have noted, can be tough on the ears. These are historic recordings, with all the maddening limitations that that moniker often implies. So it's probably best to get familiar with these works through other recordings before listening to these, but they should be part of your Beethoven collection.

The Library Recordings vs The Studio Recordings.......2003-12-28

As much as I love the Budapesters I couldn't get past the quality of the library recordings. You cannot hear the instruments articulate very well in some parts. I don't know if this is because the library has poor acoustics or the microphones where placed incorrectly. You loose some notes and even whole phrases at times in a blurr. The studio recordings are far superior in sound quality. If you already have these quartets in a modern recording and just want to add the superiority of the Budapesters then I would recommend this set so long as you know that there are sound limitations. If this is your first buy of these quartets I recommend buying the scattered and incomplete Sony Essential Classics recordings of the Budapesters playing these pieces. I know the CD generation will not like the library recordings, but if you are used to listening to music with a grain of salt for the quality of the recording then you can enjoy the library recordings.

Thoroughly enjoyed this collection........2000-12-31

Honestly, I had never heard of The Budapest before, I love classical music more and more these days and was searching for some options here on Amazon. This was one of the selections highlighted on my recommendations page and I listened to it and decided I would like it for Christmas. I recieved it and I have fallen in love with the Quartet...they play Beethoven so beautifully. I can't hear it enough, I find their playing to be very uplifting and relaxing at the same time. I also like how the interviews with the members of the Budapest....it gives great historical insight on the quartet and this time itself in history. I would recommend this CD to anyone who likes classical music in more simplistic settings. You feel as if you are sitting in on one of the concerts at the Library itself. Very authentic sound and ambience. Will always be a favorite of mine.

Average customer rating:

Bridge: Quartets 2 & 3 Manufacturer: Meridian ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music Similar Items: Bridge: String Quartets ASIN: B000003XE3 Release Date: 1997-07-29

Tracks:

1. Qt No. 3: I. Andante moderato/Allegro moderato
2. Qt No. 3: II Andante con moto
3. Qt No. 3: III Allegro energico
4. Qt No. 2 in g: I. Allegro ben moderato
5. Qt No. 2 in g: II. Allegro vivo
6. Qt No. 2 in g: III. Molto adagio/Allegro vivace

Average customer rating:

Frank Bridge: String Quartets, Volume 2 Manufacturer: Continuum ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music ASIN: B000003X0K Release Date: 1993-08-25

Average customer rating:

Britten, Bridge, Holst: String Quartets / Brindisi String Quartet (Conifer) Manufacturer: Conifer ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music All Works by Britten | Britten, Sir Benjamin | ( B ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music General | Classical | Styles | Music ASIN: B0000024BX Release Date: 1994-12-13

Track Listings:

1. Buxtehude: Jubilate Domino; Jesu, Meine Freud und Lust
2. Carl Maria von Weber: Music For Flute, Piano, Clarinet & Cello
3. Chamber Music 2
4. Choral Music
5. Ciolin Concerto / Symphony 2
6. Clarinet Concerti K. 622 & 4
7. Complete Mazurkas Op 50 & Op 62
8. David Stoll: Chamber Music
9. Dussek and The Hark
10. Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36 / Introduction & Allegro for Strings, Op. 47 / Serenade for Strings, Op. 20 - London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vernon Handley

Track Listings

track listings

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