Novák String Quartets 1/2/3

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from Supraphon:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/vitezlav-novak-streichquartette-nr-1-3/hnum/12283724

[tuatara442442]

Time to get acquainted with his SQs. Up to now I have only listened to his piano chamber music.

[eschiss1]

I believe I've heard all 3, no.3 Op.66 (1938) most often and only from LP so far (where it was coupled with the the composed-soon-after (Op.68, 1941) cello sonata in G minor.) I like both works on that LP a lot but will understand if the third quartet strikes some as modern (not dissonant-modern, but maybe lacking obvious formal focus? The cello sonata, with its ostinato - obstinate, even- finale - it's harder to say that of, I think. Though according to Earsense the 3rd quartet _also_ ends in a passacaglia, so perhaps I need to give it another listen!)

[tuatara442442]

Oh, the cello sonata is a quite boring piece of chromatic sludge to me the last time (and the first time) I listened to it...

[eschiss1]

... as I remember the sonata as being no more chromatic than Rachmaninov's (and clear in form moreover, with a first section - the title does say it's "in one span"... - whose main theme is recalled very obviously in the opening to the passacaglia-like finale), it's time for me to pull it out again too.