# Kabalevsky - String Quartet 2 op.44 (SQ review)



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Kabalevsky's 2nd String Quartet was written during the final years of World War II and finally completed in 1945. It was premiered in 1946 and won the USSR State Prize. Interestingly, it bucked tradition and was written in five movements (although the fourth and fifth movements are played without a pause). The powerful, chunky, 1st movement, Allegro, opens with a series of alternating major and minor chords and displays an obvious war influence. It's intensely fierce music, interspersed with occasional more subdued interludes and some fine use of subtle pizzicato and double stops. The 2nd movement, Andante non troppo, opens with a melancholy cello melody before pizzicati trickle into the piece and then gradually the music becomes darker and more serious before relaxing again towards the end of the movement. The 3rd movement is a Scherzando leggiero, played with muted strings, that conjures up images of a ghoulish dance (think of the witches from Tam O' Shanter). The eerily effective, muted pizzicati that creep in from a third of the way through the movement are superb (it doesn't take a mind-reader to work out that this is my favourite movement). The 4th movement is a sorrowful, haunting, pensive Adagio which takes us (attaca) to the finale, 'L'stesso tempo' which begins slowly (with lots of pizzicato again) before merging into a Vivace giocoso. Here the music becomes wilder, turbulent and more frenetic, with some nice slides around the midpoint, before it all ends with a thrilling, vivid race to the line. Although I enjoy Kabalevsky's 1st Quartet a great deal this quartet is a different beast. It's more volatile, hugely engaging and has a lot more in the condensed writing and character to it than its predecessor. It may not sound like the music of Shostakovich, Myaskovsky or Prokofiev but it's just as good quality-wise and I'd heavily recommend to you to listen to it. For a pizzi-freak like me this quartet is a pluckfest and it's one that I'd love to hear live. Let's hope I get to hear it in my lifetime. 
As for recordings, like the first quartet, there are just the same couple as in the first quartet. This time my opinion is the opposite here. The *Glazunov* Quartet are again very impressive and play with lots of vitality and produce a more sinewy sound on their Olympia recording. However, the *Stenhammar* quartet take the plaudits here for me. Their thicker, more textured approach is really strong and their pizzicati are firm and carried out expertly. Overall, if I was going for a disc with both quartets on my marginal preference would be for the Stenhammar set as the sound is better but tbh its the only recording of both currently available (the Glazunov quartet recording has been OOP for years).


----------

