# Nielsen - String Quartet 3 op. 14



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Composed 10 years after his 1st Quartet Nielsen's 3rd Quartet, Op.13, is, for me, his SQ masterpiece and is considered by many others to be his finest, too.
The 1st movement, Allegro con brio, with its echoes of late Beethoven is a cracker. Nielsen's mastery of counterpoint here is deeply evidenced in this convincing bold beginning. The 2nd movement, Andante sostenuto is lyrical and equally fine, lacking the hyper romanticism that mars the andante of his 1st quartet. With it's lovely first violin theme the movenent grows and develops highlighting the drama of this introspective movement. The 3rd movement, Allegretto pastorale, is a thoroughly engaging intermezzo with a superb, stormy Presto trio. Those scampering triplets and double stop chords are what really drew me into this exceptional work, initially. Soon the intermezzo theme returns until the end. The beginning of the finale, Allegro coraggioso, reminds me of Dvorak's later 'American' work until a second theme triggers fugal writing followed by a glorious pizzicato intermezzo section (you can imagine how much I enjoy this part). This really is a classic quartet that every SQ lover needs to hear.
* _a word of warning - the 2 recordings on the Dacapo label by the 'Danish Quartet' and the 'Young Danish Quartet' are one of the same! I don't know why we have two differently named sets (maybe someone can answer this) but they have identical timings and identical quartet members and recording dates. So, here's my opinions on the recordings I've heard. I've still got to hear the Carl Nielsen Quartet's OOP set on DG (if anyone gets a youtube link, etc then drop me a line)._
Not many recordings to go at so here goes...

*Average

Erling Bloch Quartet* - unless you're one of those people that swear that anything recorded before electricity was invented is the bees knees you probably wont rate this much. This 1946 performance is obviously from the 78 era but the string sound is terribly wiry and there's very little bass (as expected). The EBs play well enough and the rhytms are nicely sprung but this is uncompetitive when there are far better modern recordings, played better and in terrific sound.

*Good

Zapolski Quartet* - This OOP Chandos set is very well recorded but the Zapolskis opt for an incredibly slow and heavy approach that captures none of the joy of this quartet and kills the final movement dead. They've also taken some poetic license with phrasing (and the score?). I really didn't rate this performance but the Chandos sound is terrific.
*Copenhagen Quartet* - Another OOP one. I did get to hear this eventually through extensive searching on youtube (it's murder to find). The Copehagens' warmly romantic approach lacks some of the depth of the others on here but it's pleasant enough.

*Excellent

Oslo Quartet*
This is a really impressive performance. The Oslo Quartet are a bit more rugged than their competitors and may not have their finesse but you can't fault this disc. Naxos give them a really good sound for this one and there's little between this and my top pick.
*Kontra Quartet*
Some will probably put this one above my top pick and I nearly did. The dealbreaker, though, is not the playing, which is excellent, lively and fun, but the sound which is bright and very reverberant. This, for me, obscures some of the details of the playing in ensemble passages. However, this is a fine set and a certain critic (no names) has this as his reference set and I can fully understand why. It's merely a case of whether you can live with that acoustic.

*Top Pick

(Young) Danish Quartet*
Whatever theyre called this is the one I came back to the most. The recording is absolutely brilliant and drives a middle line between the boisterous bass of the Oslos and the brightness of the Kontras. The playing throughout is uniformly stunning, especially in the finale, so much so that I grabbed this one the other day. A keeper.


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