Weinberg: String Quartets, Vol. 5 Arcadia Quartet

• Mieczysław Weinberg (1919 – 1996): String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14:
• 1 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14: I. Presto 07:36
• 2 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14: II. Andante sostenuto 07:49
• 3 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 14: 04:53
• Improvisation and Romance:
• 4 Weinberg: Improvisation and Romance: I. Adagio 03:24
• 5 Weinberg: Improvisation and Romance: II. Andante 03:59
• String Quartet No. 9, Op. 80:
• 6 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 9, Op. 80: I. Allegro molto 06:23
• 7 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 9, Op. 80: II. Allegretto 06:01
• 8 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 9, Op. 80: III. Andante 10:21
• 9 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 9, Op. 80: IV. Allegro moderato 06:39
• String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122:
• 10 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122: I. Dotted crotchet = 96 03:03
• 11 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122: II. Crotchet = 63 03:51
• 12 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122: III. Crotchet = 108 05:11
• 13 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122: IV. Dotted crotchet = 54 03:45
• 14 Weinberg: String Quartet No. 14, Op. 122: V. Crotchet = 152 08:32
• Total Runtime 01:21:27

Info for Weinberg: String Quartets, Vol. 5

The Arcadia Quartet reaches the penultimate release in its acclaimed complete Weinberg string quartets series with this volume, featuring Quartets Nos 3, 9, and 14.

As in previous volumes, the works are taken from contrasting periods of Weinberg’s compositional development, and so present a varied programme that works in its own right. Quartet No. 3, composed in 1944, could be considered as the first ‘mature’ quartet, and is set in three movements. The Ninth Quartet, composed in 1963, dates from his self-described ‘starry decade’, when his work was championed by a significant group of enthusiastic performers, including Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Kirill Kondrashin, Rudolf Barshai, and the Borodin Quartet. Quartet No. 14 dates from 1978, three years after the death of Weinberg’s great friend and mentor Shostakovich: a time when Wein berg was questioning and renewing his artistic identity. The album also includes the short Improvisation and Romance, from 1950.

Arcadia Quartet

Arcadia Quartet
Winners of the 2014 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the 2012 Wigmore Hall London International String Quartet Competition, the 2011 Almere International Chamber Music Competition in 2011 and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009, the Arcadia Quartet is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most exciting string quartets of their generation.

Formed in 2006 while students at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Romania, the quartet finished their postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and became the Alumni members of the European Chamber Music Academy, while they have performed across the world including performances at the Budapest Spring Festival, the International George Enescu Festival (Bucharest), Cité international des arts (Paris), Alte Oper Frankfurt, Pollack Hall (Montreal), The Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Wigmore Hall (London), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Musikverein (Vienna), Aldeburgh Festival, Konzerthaus Berlin, North Norfolk Music Festival, Romanian Athenaeum, Q’arto Mondi Festival (Poznań), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kammermusiktage Mettlach, Zeist Music Days Festival in The Netherlands, throughout the United Kingdom, in Portugal, in Tel-Aviv and in Beijing. The Quartet made their BBC Radio 3 debut with a broadcast concert from the Wigmore Hall in March 2015, and in April 2015 were invited to become the Quartet-in-Residence at the prestigious Tinerimea Română National Art Centre in Bucharest, playing six concerts a year broadcast by the Romanian Broadcasting Company. Over the years the Quartet have collaborated with many internationally renown artists such as Marin Cazacu, Diana Ligeti, Amit Peled, Remus Azoiței, Sarah Chang, Robert Levin, János Bálint, Seiya Ueno, Ad Libitum Quartet, Con Tempo Quartet, Belcea Quartet, etc.

The Arcadia Quartet’s debut disc of works by Mendelssohn and Brahms was released by Fontenay Classics in 2009 attracting critical acclaim. Ensemble Magazin wrote of ‘their intimate performance’, ‘their exceptional sonority’ and their ‘expressive power which leaves a deep impression on the listener’. Their recording of Janáček Quartet No. 1 and No. 2 was released on the label Orchid Classics in October 2013. The Sunday Times wrote of ‘a beauty that pierces the heart’, and that ‘both works are played with searing intensity by the fine young Romanian quartet’. The Financial Times wrote that the quartet ‘create a mood of edgy expressionism that, in its violent swings and chromatic stresses, is shockingly direct and dramatic, like an opera – or a nightmare’, that ‘the result is an assault on the senses, piercing the heart of this unsettling music’.

The Arcadia Quartet started collaborating with Chandos Records in September 2017, launching an album containing the complete Bartók string quartets. This double CD comes with commendatory reviews from the most esteemed professional publications of the world and with 5 star reviews in the magazines Diapason and Classica. The album was named Disc of the Week by BBC Radio 3, one of the best albums of October 2018 by WQXR-FM in New York, and Disc of the Month by Classica magazine in January 2019.

An extraordinary new project is on the way with Chandos Records: the recording of all 17 string quartets of Mieczysław Weinberg. This set of 6 CDs will be launched in the following 5 years.

"The Romanian ensemble lives through the emotional eruptions in Janáček’s music with heart and soul ... every accent is a stich into the heart." Marcus Stäbler, Fono Forum, April 2014

“the playing has such intensity....The result is an assault on the senses, piercing the heart of this unsettling music” The Financial Times, September 2013

Booklet for Weinberg: String Quartets, Vol. 5