Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major, String Trio, Op. 45 & Phantasy for Violin, Op. 47 - Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet Prazak Quartet, Vlastimil Holek, Sachiko Kayahara

• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Piano Quartet in A Minor:
• 1 Mahler: Piano Quartet in A Minor 11:51
• Arnold Schönberg (1874 - 1951): String Quartet in D Major:
• 2 Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major: I. Allegro molto 06:22
• 3 Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major: II. Intermezzo. Andantino grazioso 04:31
• 4 Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major: III. Andante con moto 07:38
• 5 Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major: IV. Allegro 04:41
• String Trio, Op. 45:
• 6 Schönberg: String Trio, Op. 45: I. Part 1 02:03
• 7 Schönberg: String Trio, Op. 45: II. 1st Episode 05:33
• 8 Schönberg: String Trio, Op. 45: III. Part 2 03:27
• 9 Schönberg: String Trio, Op. 45: IV. 2nd Episode 02:50
• 10 Schönberg: String Trio, Op. 45: V. Part 3 05:19
• Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47:
• 11 Schönberg: Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47 09:00
• Total Runtime 01:03:15

Info for Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major, String Trio, Op. 45 & Phantasy for Violin, Op. 47 - Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet

Works from the beginning and end of Schoenberg’s career with an intriguing coupling of Mahler’s Piano Quartet

"The young Gustav Mahler, not known as a composer of chamber music, wrote a Piano Quartet while still a student at the Vienna Conservatory. This movement is all that remains of his jejune effort, with the exception of a small bit of a scherzo (something composer Alfred Schnittke opted to complete). This recording is of the first movement alone, and it is an interesting chance for Mahler completists to get a sense of his young composer’s developing symphonic mind. Like Schoenberg, he too was under the direct spell of Brahms, as is evident from this thick-hued offering. Joined by pianist Kayahara, the Quartet plays this music with all the appropriate rough-and-tumble depth and fury, and the taut single movement serves as a wonderful opener for this beautiful and intelligently planned release." (ClassicsToday)

"The Prazák Quartet’s prowess in the music of, and around, the Second Viennese School has already been demonstrated. This new disc ties up Schoenbergian loose ends as well as including Mahler’s sole surviving contribution to the chamber medium. His Piano Quartet movement (1876) is brooding and dark-hued; the lead-back to the main theme’s reprise is especially effective.

Schoenberg’s String Quartet in D (1897) can be interpreted either as the completion of his apprenticeship or as the harbinger of new developments. The Prazák play safe by keeping the work within the technical and temperamental limits of Brahms and Dvovák. The opening movement lacks its exposition repeat and the third movement loses some of the variations that the Arditti’s rightly include, but this is still a likeable reading – at its best in the pensive melancholy of the Intermezzo and vigour of the Finale.

In its synthesis of form and expression, the String Trio (1946) is Schoenberg’s crowning achievement. The Prazák members maintain a firm grip in the visceral ‘Part One’, and their unanimity of ensemble solves most of the textural pitfalls in which the two episodes abound. A touch more dynamism would not have gone amiss, not least the heightened reprise going into ‘Part Three’, but this remains a lucid way into a troubled masterpiece. Vlastimil Holek equally has the measure of the Phantasy (1949), projecting both its thorny rhetoric and distilled lyricism with a sure awareness of overall cohesion.

The recorded balance is immediate but sympathetic, with that between piano and strings exemplary in both respects. The notes are informative if at times prolix, and slightly awkwardly translated (‘post-Lisztian “magic rondo”’ indeed!). Altogether a worthwhile collection of – and no mean entrée into – the chronological limits of Viennese modernism." (Gramophone)

Prazak Quartet:
Vlastimíl Holek, violin (track 11)
Sachiko Kayahara, piano (tracks 1, 11)

Digitally remastered

The Pražák Quartet
one of today’s leading international chamber music ensembles - was established in 1972 while its members were students at the Prague Conservatory, and won major chamber music prizes early on, including first prize at the prestigious Evian String Quartet Competition, along with a special recording prize from Radio France. Since then, the quartet has gained attention for its place in the unique Czech quartet tradition, and for its musical virtuosity.

For more than 30 years, the Prazak Quartet has been at home on music stages worldwide. They are regular guests in the major European musical capitals such as Prague, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Madrid, London, Berlin, and Munich, and have been invited to participate at numerous international festivals, where they have collaborated with such artists as Menahem Pressler, Jon Nakamatsu, Cynthia Phelps, Roberto Diaz, Josef Suk, and Sharon Kam.

The quartet has toured widely in North America, having performed in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Washington, Philadelphia, Toronto, Montreal and many others. The quartet returns to the US and Canada every other year.

The Prazak Quartet has recorded extensively for Praga/Harmonia Mundi which, to date, has released 50 award-winning CDs. In addition to numerous radio recordings in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic, the Prazak Quartet has also made recordings for Supraphon, Panton, Orfeo, Ottavo, Bonton, and Nuova Era.

As of 2020, violinist Marie Fuxová and cellist Jonáš Krejčí joined the quartet. The new members bring their extensive string quartet and chamber music experience, having played with the Pavel Haas, Škampa, Petersen and Schulhoff quartets as well as in many chamber orchestras and ensembles. They bring their experience and energy into the group while remaining faithful to the Czech quartet tradition, character and quality which are the longtime hallmarks of the Pražák Quartet. A new CD with the last string quartets of Josef Haydn will be released on the Aparté/Praga label in August 2021.

Booklet for Arnold Schönberg: String Quartet in D Major, String Trio, Op. 45 & Phantasy for Violin, Op. 47 - Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet