# Hovhaness - String Quartet 1 'Jupiter' op.8 (SQ review)



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Interestingly, Hovhaness' quartets were all written to be played at his home with his friends and not really used in performance. If you know Hovhaness' symphonies you'll know roughly what to expect. His music inhabits a distinctive soundworld with strong, simple, modal harmonies mixed with elements drawn from Hovhaness’s Armenian heritage, and the Far East, however his string quartets are not totally like his symphonies and Hovhaness' quartet influences often pop through so there's reminisces of Beethoven, Faure and even some Haydn and Bach (he loved the music of Bach, evidenced by his heavy use of Fugue here). In the 1st Quartet of 1936 Hovhaness’s contrapuntal skills are much in evidence and the opening 'Prelude' and 2nd movement (an impressive quadruple Fugue) were later reworked in the 1950s for full orchestra into the popular Prelude and Quadruple Fugue. The Prelude has a jaunty, interesting oriental sounding melody whilst the 2nd movement is initially more rigorously fugal, stylistically, before a zigzagging theme develops to an urgent and busy ending. The slow 3rd movement is moody, haunting and tenderly elegiac. A bustling fugue finale rounds things out which was also reused, appearing again in the 2nd movement of the more popular Mysterious Mountain symphony. 
For the uninitiated the 1st quartet is a great place to start with Hovhaness and I find this piece a joy from start to end. Hopefully you'll feel the same about it. It's also a relatively short quartet, at less than 15 minutes in length, so it's hardly a difficult listen.

That I know of, there's only one recording of this quartet and that's by the *Shanghai Quartet,* on Delos from the mid 90s and its a mighty fine one. The slightly more distant miking works really well here, allowing the listener to hear the dreamy and otherworldly atmosphere of Hovhaness without intrusive breathing or any airlessness in the recording. Highly recommended.


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