CD ECM Records Zehetmair Quartett - Hartmann, Bartok

2001

Thomas Zehetmair - vioara
Ulf Schneider - vioara
Ruth Killius - viola
Francoise Groben - violoncel


Karl Amadeus Hartmann - Streichquartett Nr.1 - Carillon
Bela Bartok - Streichquartett Nr. 4

Debut recording of the astonishing quartet of whom The Times of London wrote: 'What a group! On they come, devoid of frills, just the instruments, and the music in their heads and fingers. And then they start up, the sound so full-blooded, dangerous and raw. Though the velvet touch is not beyond them, they never dispense dainty milk and honey: you are forcefully aware that this is music-making bold and magical...'

***

Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Bestenliste 3/2001
German Record Critics’ Award, quarterly list 3/2001
BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s choice
Le Monde de la Musique, Choc
Strad Selection

Anyone in search of the artistic spirit and expressive concerns of Central European classical music during the inter-war years should head straight for this excellent ECM release, which pairs the explosive soundworld of Bartók’s groundbreaking Fourth String Quartet with the equally individual and striking creativity of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s First String Quartet. This album marks the debut recording of outstanding string players the Zehetmair Quartet.
Music Week (Album of the Week)

The artistic success of ECM’s recent Hartmann disc made the prospect of this release the more exciting. There’s no doubt that the Zehetmair Quartet get to the core of the First Quartet written as the Third Reich came to power, in which Hartmann’s humanitarian instincts markedly shape his creative approach. The resignation of the first movement’s introduction is affecting, glissandos deftly touched in, with the vehement continuation powerfully sustained. In the second movement, haunting textures –shot through with Hartmann’s unique diatonic dissonance – throw a succession of solo recitatives into relief, anticipating gestures now familiar from the Second Symphony 13 years hence. Here and in the tumultuous fugato writing of the finale, the Zehetmair players capture the music’s agitation to perfection.
Graham Simpson, International Record Review

A Bartókian classic in tandem with a little-known masterpiece that took Bartók as its lead. Superb performances. ... Hartmann’s language is introverted, questing, harmonically bold and economical. Not a note is wasted (it rarely is), and the performance under review could hardly be bettered. A first encounter made a strong impression, a second was even more fruitful and the work is already pulling rank in my memory bank alongside choice quartets by Bartók, Schoenberg, Janáček and Shostakovich.
I’m told that the Zehetmair Quartet play their repertoire by heart, and you can sense spontaneous engagement in both works, especially in Barrtók’s Fourth, where the trenchant opening Allegro is treated to an unusual (though never disfiguring) level of freedom. The entire performance has a distinctly improvisational feel to it, the finale in particular, which tears off at a terrific lick, yet stops short of excessive tenseness.
Rob Cowan, Gramophone

Founded only a few years ago, the Zehetmair quartet, led by the outstanding violinist Thomas Zehetmair, is already among the finest ensembles around. They boast technical confidence, expressive freedom and a complete understanding of each work’s idiom.
The Guardian

Thomas Zehetmair, always a penetrating soloist with a searching soul, proves a highly successful quartet leader on this new disc. The coupling is enlightening: Hartmann’s three-movement First Quartet shows the inspiration of Berg’s Lyric Suite, but also of the earthy modality of Bartók, especially in the robust finale. Written in 1933 when Hartmann’s status as an anti-Fascist outsider was already hardening, the work won the Carillon prize in Geneva in 1936, so establishing him as an independent German voice. It demonstrates a remarkable ease of process, from its mournful opening uncoiling, through a rasping dance into the glassy, muted reverie, where the falling intervals of the cello’s alarms sound a hopeless note. The Zehetmair Quartet recreates the subtler textures with an acute ear for balance. ... I wish this exciting new ensemble – just four years old – a long life.
Helen Wallace, BBC Music Magazine (Editor’s choice)