Stenhammar String Quartets on BIS

[obermann]

I see that BIS is planning to release the first of what should be a complete cycle of the Stenhammar quartets:

http://www.music-island.pl/opisplyty-BISSACD+1659.html

I am not familiar with these works. How would others describe them in general terms?

[eschiss1]

Subjectively: really good music, especially the last four. (I admit that since the recording I have of nos.3 and 4 is out of print- the only commercially available recording (at the moment) is by the Oslo Quartet on cpo- I'm glad to see this announcement.
More objectively: influenced by Beethoven, Schumann, maybe Grieg and Mendelssohn, maybe earlier or at least different sources also (there aren't many passacaglia - ground-bass/ostinato - sections in string quartet movements written around 1900, but that's how he closes off the third movement of his 3rd quartet, following it with a fantasy-and-fugue finale. Subjectively speaking again, the emotional charge is high, in my opinion- the obsessive quality of the ending of that movement works very well, for one thing.

There's an interesting(?) connection between Stenhammar and the "old forum", in that Stenhammar's diaries (as excerpted in a music journal awhile back, I recall reading) contain a note of a performance by the composer, his friend Tor Aulin, and others (whether public or just between them, I forget) of Raff's piano quintet...

Hrm. I would have expected the "Yggdrasil Quartet" , which has recorded a lot for BIS in the past - and has recorded a lot of Stenhammar's quartets for Swedish Radio (I hope some of those will be released commercially someday, they're better, I think, than the one I have on CD, anyway) - to be a natural for the recording... but then- who more natural than the Stenhammar Quartet? Thanks again

[eschiss1]

... didn't know he wrote 7 quartets, though. Hrm. If the early F minor quartet still exists and they'll be recording it, that's really interesting, even though I prefer the later ones (esp. nos. 3 and 4, on this disc.)

[Gauk]

This is one of my favourite sets of string quartets; the music is consistently inventive, attractive and memorable. Any new recording is greatly to be welcomed.