Sallinen String Quartets
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Aulis Sallinen
Label: Ondine
Magazine Review Date: 12/1995
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ODE831-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| String Quartet No. 1 |
Aulis Sallinen, Composer
(Jean) Sibelius Quartet Aulis Sallinen, Composer |
| String Quartet No. 2, 'Canzona' |
Aulis Sallinen, Composer
(Jean) Sibelius Quartet Aulis Sallinen, Composer |
| String Quartet No. 3, 'Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintr |
Aulis Sallinen, Composer
(Jean) Sibelius Quartet Aulis Sallinen, Composer |
| String Quartet No. 4, 'Silent Songs' |
Aulis Sallinen, Composer
(Jean) Sibelius Quartet Aulis Sallinen, Composer |
| String Quartet No. 5, 'Pieces of Mosaic' |
Aulis Sallinen, Composer
(Jean) Sibelius Quartet Aulis Sallinen, Composer |
Author:
Aulis Sallinen's international reputation rests on his operas and symphonies, so as a composer of chamber music he is something of an unknown quantity. True, his Third Quartet of 1969, Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintrik's Funeral March, has enjoyed the advocacy of several ensembles, most notably the Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch, 2/89).
Sallinen's first two quartets are apprentice works, written in the standard semi-serial style of the day. No. 1 (1958) is laid out in three movements with accelerating tempo markings, No. 2 (1960) as a single span. However anonymous they seem now, both contain ample evidence of Sallinen's technical attainment and their overshadowing by the Third is unjust. No. 4 (1971) is of a very different cast: after the vigour of No. 3, the Fourth is delicate and largely very quiet, as befits its title. Its aspect of stasis was carried further in the Fifth (1983), which is tied spiritually to Sallinen's third opera, The King goes forth to France. No. 5, ''the kind of work the world deserves: one which is smashed into fragments'', says the composer, is constructed as a disturbing sequence of 16 brief pieces. The Jean Sibelius Quartet navigate their way through the shifting styles with consummate mastery, their accounts of Nos. 3 and 4 the top recommendations, even over the Kronos's Third. A most important issue, completed by notes from one of the hottest young compositional stars in Finland, Veli-Matti Puumala.'
Sallinen's first two quartets are apprentice works, written in the standard semi-serial style of the day. No. 1 (1958) is laid out in three movements with accelerating tempo markings, No. 2 (1960) as a single span. However anonymous they seem now, both contain ample evidence of Sallinen's technical attainment and their overshadowing by the Third is unjust. No. 4 (1971) is of a very different cast: after the vigour of No. 3, the Fourth is delicate and largely very quiet, as befits its title. Its aspect of stasis was carried further in the Fifth (1983), which is tied spiritually to Sallinen's third opera, The King goes forth to France. No. 5, ''the kind of work the world deserves: one which is smashed into fragments'', says the composer, is constructed as a disturbing sequence of 16 brief pieces. The Jean Sibelius Quartet navigate their way through the shifting styles with consummate mastery, their accounts of Nos. 3 and 4 the top recommendations, even over the Kronos's Third. A most important issue, completed by notes from one of the hottest young compositional stars in Finland, Veli-Matti Puumala.'
Sallinen String Quartets
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