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An ominous foreboding, blood in the snow, a corpse in winter …
These is the story of a tragic incident which took place near the court of the Duke of Hildburghausen in 1757, and forms part of the unusual credentials of a man who avoided a fatal end only by a hair’s breadth because he chose to play string quartets. In his memoirs, the violinist and composer Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf recalls refusing an invitation to take a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh due to a premonition. As a consequence, while Dittersdorf was playing first violin with his brothers in the court orchestra, a young man sitting next to the coachman on the sleigh ride was killed due to reckless driving. Stimulated with high-quality coffee and indulging in the finest tobacco, Dittersdorf named the celebrated composer of that era whose works they were playing that evening: Franz Xaver Richter, the Mannheim master of counterpoint and a composer of the most exquisite chamber music and symphonies.

Recent research by musicologists shows it is safe to assume that those works were very likely the seven quartets of opus 5, which are now to be released for the first time in a complete recording on the SOLO MUSICA label. Two exceptional CDs have been compiled, in cooperation with the SWR broadcasting company, featuring the casalQuartett from Zurich, an ensemble that won an ECHO Klassik award in 2010. As was the case on their previous two “BIRTH of the STRING QUARTET” CDs, this release features some almost unknown examples of stunningly beautiful string quartets played on four unique instruments by Jacobus Stainer, one of the most-sought-after European violin-makers of the 18th century. This release represents a milestone in the string literature, bringing to life works written 250 years ago, and it makes the case for a well-earned revival of one of the founding fathers of the string quartet.

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All three composers were in their time and go to the pain threshold of the possible and feasible, and so compress their music to works beyond human imagination. The casalQuartett, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung attests them “Chamber Music in age, intensity to the ends of the playable, passion, temperament, expression, and tonal variety”, extend their catalogue with “Intenso” with adding another exciting facet.

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For the first time recorded entirely on Jacobus Steiner instruments Scarlatti, Boccherini, Haydn, Mozart

The Jubilee Year 2009 celebrates Joseph Haydn as the most important representatives of the Viennese classics in addition to Mozart. Among its greatest achievements is undoubtedly the “invention” of the string quartet. While typically each student begins with this fascinating genre by Haydn, illuminates the casal quartet with the project “The sound of the 18th century,” the various ways to the creation of the European String Quartet. In Italy, France and Germany, four-part instrumental in the 1 Half of the 18th Century are more and more important. In the first CD of the quartet casal on this issue comes next to the masters of the early classical GF Telemann most outstanding protagonists of Italian gets a chance to speak: JB. Sammartini and Alessandro Scarlatti are preparing, which eventually flows amazingly modern with Luigi Boccherini’s String Quartet in real. Another early milestone of the genre is the Quartet, K. 170 by W.A. Mozart, recorded here also for this CD. For the goal of the development end of the 18th century is finally Haydn’s String Quartet in G major, Op 76 / 1. For these recordings the quartet casal where supplied with a complete set of unique instruments of the Austrian violin-maker Jacob Stainer from the years around 1650. Their sound was considered until the early 19th century as an absolute Ideal.

Awarded with the Echo Klassic 2010

Description

Few genres in music tend to be as traditional and conservative as the string quartet. Its repertoire is vast and features music of all styles since the 17th century. The core-repertoire from Haydn, Beethoven through to Bartók and Schostakowitsch dominates the stage. Unfortunately we still meet producers who stubbornly reject an expansion of the repertoire and refuse contemporary music or even a new idea of how to play a Haydn quartet today. We believe that the versatility of stringquartet music will save the genre from a premature fate. One lifetime is too short to play everything that has been written for quartet. So if we play, it should be the music that appeals to us most, if it be a fourvoice invention of the renaissance, late Beethoven, Erwin Schulhoff or Astor Piazzolla. Those who look at Piazzolla`s life and compositions closely without just listening to his »hits«, will be amazed what a rollercoaster ride he went through. He grew up with jazz; the traditional tango fed him for a long time. With Alberto Ginastera he conquered classical and new music and left Argentinia and finally, the composer Nadja Boulanger led him to his destiny to give the tango a new definition.

As with any good music, the result had to go through a time of evolvement that certainly has not come to an end yet. Encounters with the Argentinian musicians Giora Feidman (clarinet) and Michael Zisman (bandoneon) have helped us to understand tango as a »foreign« culture much better. We hope that every listener will feel this inspiration on this CD. Michael Zisman recorded with us those »Tango Sensations«, that seemed specially important to Piazzolla. They sound different from what we normaly expect from him. They are intimate, vulnerable, uniquely his, painful, sometimes angry. They are always the work of a great composer who honestly shows what he feels.