PACM018:
Music for Four Stringed Instruments - Loeffler
MP3
price
The
Coolidge Quartet
Recorded in 1938, issued as Victor Red Seal album M543, 15349-15351
Matrix numbers: 023442, 023443, 023444, 023445, 023446, 023447.
(Duration 24'21")
William
Kroll (1st Violin)
Nicolai
Berezowsky (2nd violin)
Nicolas
Moldavan (Viola)
Victor
Gottlieb (Cello)
Play
sample movement:
Charles
Martin Loeffler (1861-1935) was born in Germany (though he
always falsly claimed French origins) . He emigrated to the United States
in 1881 having studied violin in Germany and France, and after some time
as a player with the Boston Symphony Orchestra resigned in order to become
a full-time composer. As a composer he was somewhat slow, though fastidious.
The 1917 string quartet presented here is considered among his finest
work.
The
'Coolidge Quartet' of this recording appears to be a short-lived
ensemble of first-rank musicians assembled by Elizabeth Coolidge for her
tireless promotion of chamber music. Although the quartet existed in name
for several years the membership seems to have changed regularly. Of particular
note here is the composer, conductor and violinist Nicolai Berezowsky
(1900-1953).
Publisher's
notes on this piece: "Music for Four Stringed
Instruments was composed in 1917 at the
height of the First World War and was dedicated to the memory of Victor
Chapman, the son of a close friend and the first American airman killed
in the conflict. Plainchant is used decisively in the structure of the
work, the Resurrexi figuring prominently throughout the quartet. The Resurrexi
becomes a secondary motif to the Victimae paschali in the second movement
(subtitled “Easter Sunday”) but regains preeminence in the climactic
third movement to affirm spiritual victory over earthly sorrow. A Lorraine
march tune also appears briefly in the third movement, which is highly
programmatic. Largely Impressionistic, the quartet also is infused with
rich Romantic harmonies that reveal a cosmopolitan approach to compositional
structure." (From wolfheadmusic.com)
REVIEW
OF LOEFFLER - MUSIC FOR FOUR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS Coolidge Quartet (1938)
Charles
Martin Loeffler was a distinguished American composer and
musician who was really French in his heart and soul. So French
that he claimed and most of his biographies reported him to
have been born in Mulhouse in Alsace-Lorraine, the provinces
which the Germans captured in the Franco-Prussian War. Totally
untrue. He was born in Berlin to a Republican father who was
imprisoned for his activities in Bismarkian Prussia and was
ill-treated, perhaps even tortured in prison, dying of a stroke
when Charles was 12 years old. Charles conceived of a hatred
for things German and embraced French culture. He emigrated
to the United States in his 20's, but maintained his ties
with France. He helped support Faure in the latter's old age.
His
masterpiece is "A Pagan Poem" after an eclogue by
Virgil. This has received a distinguished recording by Stokowski.
Loeffler's "Mort de Tintageles" uses two violas
d'amore in its scoring. The work in question here is a very
lovely and elegant string quartet that is redolent of French
style, but has its own distinctive voice. One hears Debussy
and Franck, but there is a modal quality that is all Loeffler's
own. The quartet is in three continuous movements which begin
slowly and gain speed but never quite reach an allegro. Yet
there is a sense of completion without the heavy rhetoric
or thematic transformation of the Franckian school.
The
Coolidge Quartet lives up to its reputation and the sound
is neither cramped nor harsh.
Reviewer:
Bill Rosen
Find
out more:
Music
for Four Stringed Instruments 1st mvt: Poco adagio - Allegro comodo
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