Description
ECM New Series: Zehetmair Quartett — Bartók String Quartet No. 5 / Hindemith String Quartet No. 4 — Audio CD
Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!
Product Details:
- Product Type: Audio CD
- Brand / Label: ECM New Series
- Artist / Ensemble: Zehetmair Quartett
- Composers: Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith
- Release Year: 2007
- Catalog Number: ECM New Series 1874 / 476 5779
- UPC: 028947657798
- Label Code: LC 02516
- Producer: Manfred Eicher
- Genre: Classical
- Style: Modern, 20th-Century Chamber Music
Product Features
- Format: CD
- Discs: 1
- Total runtime: approx. 50:47
- Players: Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Kuba Jakowicz (violin), Ruth Killius (viola), Ursula Smith (violoncello)
- Recording: Kulturbühne AmBach, Götzis, June 2006
- Engineer: Stephan Schellmann
- Made in: Germany
- Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed
Overview
Two string quartets written between the wars, paired with intent. Bartók's Fifth from 1934 sits beside Hindemith's Fourth from 1921 — one fiery and folk-charged, the other turning back toward polyphony and baroque structure. Played side by side, the contrast does the talking.
The Zehetmair Quartett performs from memory, which is rare for music this thorny. That freedom shows. The Bartók moves through its five movements with a tight, functional drive, and the ashen Adagio molto at its center reads like a grisaille panel set among four blazing ones — reduced almost to silence, yet shaded with care.
Hindemith's Fourth is the real find here. Rarely programmed, also in five movements, it leans slow and inward where the Bartók burns. The quartet treats it as a peer rather than a coupling, and critics agreed: this recording took the Diapason d'Or de l'Année, with The Guardian calling the Hindemith reading a new benchmark.
This is the sealed 2007 ECM New Series edition, produced by Manfred Eicher — clean ECM sound, no clutter, the program exactly as issued.
Interesting Facts
- The Zehetmair Quartett plays its entire repertoire from memory, an unusual practice for a string quartet tackling dense 20th-century scores.
- This recording won the Diapason d'Or de l'Année, the second time the ensemble earned the honor.
- The quartet's earlier ECM Schumann recording was named Gramophone "Record of the Year."
- Bartók wrote his Fifth Quartet in 1934, commissioned by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation; Hindemith composed his Fourth in 1921.
- In November 2014 the ensemble received the Paul Hindemith Prize of the City of Hanau for its contribution to the composer's legacy.
- Founder Thomas Zehetmair is equally established as a solo violinist and conductor, lending the quartet an unusually wide musical perspective.
Track Listing
Béla Bartók — Streichquartett Nr. 5
- Allegro — 6:58
- Adagio molto — 5:38
- Scherzo. Alla bulgarese — 4:38
- Andante — 4:58
- Finale. Allegro vivace — 6:37
Paul Hindemith — Streichquartett Nr. 4, Op. 22
- I. Fugato. Sehr langsame Viertel — 4:49
- II. Schnelle Achtel. Sehr energisch, Presto — 4:25
- III. Ruhige Viertel. Stets fließend — 6:35
- IV. Mäßig schnelle Viertel — 1:58
- V. Rondo. Gemächlich und mit Grazie — 3:58
Publishers
Released by ECM Records GmbH (Munich) in 2007 under the ECM New Series imprint, catalog 1874 / 476 5779. Produced by Manfred Eicher; engineered by Stephan Schellmann. Printed in Germany.
Sealed copy in hand? A quick review helps fellow collectors decide.
