# Szymanowski - String Quartet 1 op. 37 (SQ review)



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Szymanowski's 1st string quartet is easily my favourite of his quartets, with its 3 movements and rich blend of romanticism and impressionism
The 1st movement, Lento assai, is the longest movement, taking up almost half of the whole quartet. It begins ostentatiously and gracefully. Long lines and counterpoint juxtaposed with restlessness. You can certainly hear Debussy's influence here.
The 2nd, andantino semplice, with its slow, lyrical bowing is even more Debussian to my ears. What sounds like a gentle melody again is juxtaposed against dark, angular accompaniment which gives the movement a quite imposing and eerie hue. High violin notes against low cello grumbles. In fact it's a movement packed with many different forms of articulaton, creating a conflicting but engaging soundscape.
The finale is a swaggering scherzo, cleverly incorporating a fugue. With it's clever use of pizzicato, accents and and tremolos we enter a different soundworld where Ravel and Shostakovich collide ingeniously (and Shosty wins). Szymanowski had originally placed the scherzo second, intending this to be a 4 movement work, but he he was distracted, understandably, by events of 1917 so never got round to writing an intended finale for the work. Instead he switched the scherzo to the end.






Of what I've heard, there's no recording I've found less than recommendable and a few I really rate massively. Btw, although I heard a poor vinyl rip of the 1951 Walden Quartet recording I'm not including it here as the rip was too poor to properly assess the performance (it didn't sound _too_ bad though). I'm guessing it won't really make a dint in proceedings, though. I never got to hear the Pro Arte's 1980s recording.

Recommended

Maggini
Prometeo
Akademos
Diverso
Schoenberg
Camerata
Goldner
Carmina


*More R**ecommended*

*Varsovia* - Smoother performance but this suits the first two movements in particular.
*Royal SQ* - boisterous, harder attacks. With a little more subtlety it could have been better.
*Silesian* - superb playing and performance but the sound has some odd balances and is a little dry.

*Eagerly Recommended

Joachim* - this reverberant recording is vital and brisker than many others here especially in a bracing and joyous finale but it goes right up to near the top of the tree, eevenif I find the portamento a little annoying.
*Apollon Musagete* - clear and well detailed with really detailed lines. Pizzicato, double-stops and mutes are done very effectively indeed.
*Wilanow* - this uber rare 1976 performance is immensely spiky in outlook. The sound is a little bright and sharp but its such a captivating account its hard not to be involved.

*Top choice

Meccore Quartet*

There was something about this recording that gripped me from start to finish. The Silesian account would have been on par with this but I dont like the sound too much on that recording. The Meccore just has it all - great sound, super performance, vital, tender, beautiful. However, these are all very self-recommending performances.


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