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Charles KOECHLIN (1867-1950)
String Quartet No. 1 in D op. 51 (1902-13) [19:26]
String Quartet No. 2 op. 57 (1909-16) [31:27]
Ardeo Quartet
rec. Saint-Marcel Lutheran Church, Paris, 2-5 October 2006. DDD
AR RE-SE AR 2006-3 [61:32]

Having recently reviewed two CDs of the Howells chamber music (Metier and Lyrita) I recognised the style of the first of these two Koechlin works. Touchingly impressionistic, open air and tonal, the Ravel quartet comes to mind. 

These are products of a young heart although a cooler wisdom is more obvious in the second. The music of Quartet No. 1 is tender and affecting even amid the Mozartean bustle of the finale. This peters out into a gentle cadence. This longer quartet opens with the same haunting sidling pattern as the first but with harmonics that suggest an autumnal chill. The harmonic complexity of this work suggests links with Berg. Perhaps Zemlinsky would be a better parallel as the textures in the first movement are quite lush - more Vienna than Berlin.  The second movement bustles and has some satisfyingly grating touches. The more nuanced emotional world of this later work in terms of its coldness and vulnerable sorrow implies a knowledge of the war raging not far from where Koechlin was writing. The grand finale of op. 57 picks up on that sidling yet quick flowing tolling with which the work began but also echoes with wisps of the chill encountered in the first movement. 

The String Quartet No. 2 was orchestrated in 1927 and became Koechlin's First Symphony. 

All in all this is well worth your currency if you respond to the quartets of Ravel, Bonnal (superb music) or Howells.

Rob Barnett

 

 


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