# Glinka - String Quartet 2 (SQ review)



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Glinka's String Quartet No.2 in F Major was written between 1829-30, before his first trip abroad (Italy) and 12 years before he wrote Ruslan and Ludmila. You can certainly detect some of the themes from the famous opera in the outer movements of this quartet as its almost operatic in style. Its quite a light quartet (think Verdi's SQ) that's quite Mozartian too. This is hardly a classic but the last 2 movements make for pleasant, if not fully absorbing, listening. For a while (in its day) this was a popular quartet in parts of Eastern Europe with some amateur ensembles as a practice piece but its largely and understandably neglected, these days (as you can tell from the low/obscure number of recordings). Unfortunately I didn't get around to hearing 3 massively out of print recordings by the Gosteleradio Quartet (1989) , Ulbrich Quartet (early 80s) or the Westwood Quartet (who? - 1958) but here's what I thought of the four recordings I did get to hear.

The first recording I tried was from the Quatuor Anton and its a very dry, scratchy affair that did little for me interpretive or acoustically so I'd not really recommend it. Those renowned Dvorakians, the Prague Quartet, on Supraphon, fared a little better but although serviceable I'd hardly call their's a recommendable recording, either.

However, there were two decent recordings that I enjoyed. St Petersburg *Taneyev Quartet *play with a real sweetness of tone and judge the minuet very well, providing an easily recommendable recording that's paired with the 1st quartet. Even more successful, however, were those Shosty stalwarts, the *Shostakovich Quartet*, on Olympia, who are provided with fuller sound and play with greater dynamic range, rhythm, freedom and clarity so this was my preferred pick for this quartet.


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