Thursday, 24 April 2025

Arensky String quartet no 2

 Day 114

Arensky String quartet no 2

Spectrum concerts Berlin

Arensky is of the generation between Tchaikovsky/The Five and Stravinsky’s. This is a period in Russian musical history that I know little about - in fact I don’t think that I have heard anything by Arensky before.  This quartet is an interesting piece. First of all it is for the unusual combination of one violin, one viola and two cellos. I am not aware of any other piece using these four instruments. It does give the piece a darker hue in places although it also means that the viola part is often very high in order to give more emphasis in the treble register. I had assumed that at some point Arensky would use the two cellos together in a lyrical duet in the matter of the Schubert Quintet but that point never arrived. Indeed Arensky later restored the piece for a conventional string quartet so clearly the two cellos were not absolutely fundamental to the piece.

The other interesting feature is the use of traditional Russian melodies. It opens with a funeral chant and ends with the same folk song that is used in Beethoven’s 2nd Rasumovsky quartet and Boris Godunov. The middle movement is a set of variations on a theme of Tchaikovsky, which is sometimes performed separately as a piece for string orchestra.. Arensky was a great, if critical, admire of Tchaikovsky and taken together this features are thought to be a tribute to Tchaikovsky as the Tsar of music.

The music is lyrical and full of contrast. I enjoyed it immensely though I did wonder whether the structure worked fully. The last movement seems quite brief after the long set of variations and seems to finish almost before it has started. But that is a small shortcoming. I look forward to hearing more of his music and indeed that of his contemporaries.  

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