Search - Sergey Taneyev, Vladimir Ovcharek, Grigory Lutzky :: Taneyev: String Quartets 6 & 9

S. I. TANEYEV: Remarkable Russian!...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 10/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Issued in 2005 on Russian Northern Flowers label distributed by RCD (Russian Compact Disc).

Recorded in late-1970s in St Petersburg, Russia, the sound is quite excellent. Colourful cover art, too.

The Taneyev String Quartet is famous in eastern Europe; lesser known in America; technicially superb.



The remarkable thing is that S. I. Taneyev (1856-1915) is so little known--nearly forgotten--by so many enthusiasts of classical music: he really fell off the map.

The reason this is so odd is because Taneyev was a wonderful composer of European art music, and a very important teacher and performer in his own lifetime. Moreover, he was a close protégé of Tchaikowsky and Rubinstein, and teacher of Scriabin, Glière, Rachmaninoff, and Medtner at the Moscow Conservatory.

Taneyev débuted Tchaikowsky's famous first piano Concerto.



As a composer, Taneyev had his own voice, wrote in the European late-Romantic tradition, and he especially favored chamber music forms. He wrote nine excellent string Quartets of a very high quality. There are few overtly Russian inflections; one would think this music was from central Europe.

Not numbered sequentially, this disc features Quartet (No. 9) in A-major [1883] and Quartet (No. 6) in Bb-major [1905].

These are large charming works in the utmost quartet style: excellent polyphony, clever part writing, great control, etc. Movements are generally :08+mins. in length. Disc TT: :71mins.



I would encourage any Art lover to look into this Northern Flowers label and discover this splendid Russian music. Sergey Taneyev: Complete Quintets . Taneyev: Chamber Music . Taneyev: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 . Sergej Taneyev: Complete String Trios .

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Essential Taneyev chamber music

Ryan Layne Whitney | Seattle, WA USA | 09/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Taneyev's 9 string quartets (the ones numbered 7, 8, and 9, without opus numbers, were written first, followed by 1 through 6, with opus numbers) are little-known but extremely gratifying works that anyone interested in late 19th-early 20th century chamber music ought to know. (Keep in mind that Taneyev taught, among others, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Medtner, and Glière.) They are full-blooded works, taughtly constructed and inventive; and if they do not have the type of glorious melody that we seem to expect from Russian composers, Taneyev's works are better in that respect than he is generally given credit for. The quartets also display Taneyev's brilliant contrapuntal skill, far more advanced than most composers of his period. These older Taneyev Quartet performances are brilliant and vibrant, giving the composer's work all the energy they deserve. Taneyev's works in general, and the quartets in particular, grow on you with repeated listening, and can become habit forming... This review applies for all 5 volumes of the quartets, which I wouldn't be without!"