Sergey TANEYEV (1856-1915)
String Quartet no.2 in C, op.5 (1894-5) [37:13]
String Quartet no.4 in A minor, op.11 (1898-9) [35:52]
Carpe Diem String Quartet (Chas Wetherbee (violin); John Ewing (violin); Korine
Fujiwara (viola); Kristin Ostling (cello))
rec. Mees Hall, Capital University Columbus, Ohio. November 2007. DDD
NAXOS 8.572421 [73:10] 
This is volume 2 of Naxos's edition of Russian composer Sergey Taneyev's complete
(9) string quartets - volume 1, released in 2007, was reviewed here
and here.
String quartets form an important part of Taneyev's output, though their numbering
is problematic. Only two movements of the first quartet were finished, then
three complete works followed, before the 'official' no.1 was published as
Taneyev's op.4. After that, more came, thick and fast, including the two on
this disc. No.6 was the last to receive an opus number (19), completed in
1905, after which Taneyev concentrated on other traditional chamber forms,
until in 1911 he wrote a final string quartet, only to break off again after
two movements.
In his article on the composer in the New Grove Dictionary, David Brown
writes that Taneyev "was the antithesis of Glinka, for whereas the latter
was possessed of a powerful and vivid imagination but was deficient in technique,
Taneyev had little imaginative endowment but commanded a compositional skill
unsurpassed by any Russian composer of his period." Anyone listening
to these two quartets is sure to agree with the latter notion immediately,
but will equally be disinclined to accept the first sentiment, because this
is music that positively bristles not just with technical expertise - they
have the same undeniable air of perfect craftsmanship about them as the middle
quartets of Beethoven - but with real imagination. Taneyev was a true intellectual
- he counted Tolstoy and Rimsky-Korsakov among his closest friends, and was
an ascetic - a rare Russian teetotaller!; but in these quartets there is much
more than dry academicism or musical sobriety.
Following three movements of music that is by turn impassioned, intimate and
lyrical, the allegro vigoroso finale of the Second Quartet abounds
in unexpected virtuosity, with chromaticism layered masterfully upon modulation
upon counterpoint upon harmonic twist and turn, all heading towards a delicious
ending. The Fourth Quartet is a more soul-searching, dramatic work
- more akin now to Beethoven's late works, which are not in any way debased
by comparison. To suggest that the composer of this quartet has "little
imaginative endowment" is absurd - this is a profound work, from the
chromatic intensity of the first movement, through the jerky elegance of the
divertimento, the wistful heartache of the adagio, to the dark-roasted, surprisingly
upbeat finale.
The genre-crossing tendencies of the Carpe Diem Quartet might not be to everyone's
liking, but there is little to fault in their musical taste or general musicianship
on this disc. The sound quality is excellent, if slightly thick, the liner-notes
fairly brief but informative.
Byzantion
Impassioned, intimate and lyrical … there is little to fault in musical taste
or general musicianship on this disc.