Charles Koechlin(1867-1950)

[Spotted Horses]

Second quartet better

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-music/id1108187390

Listened briefly to the opening of the Quartet No 1 before skipping ahead to No 3. Perhaps I will cycle back to No 2. The one thing I didn't like about it was the voice leading seemed rather claustrophobic, all crowded together. He didn't take advantage of the aural possibilities of the ensemble very well. I have it in my mind to revisit Honegger chamber music, so the Pfitzner exploration may be brief.

[Mandryka]

Consistently beautiful does not work for me.  I this point in my life, I do not have the repose necessary to take it in. There has to be some strife or conflict in the music.

You should try Feldman - shorter pieces obvs. This to me sounds like music trying to be beautiful and failing - trying to be rested but failing. (Maybe that's why he's sometimes compared to Schubert.)

[Mandryka]

Listened briefly to the opening of the Quartet No 1 before skipping ahead to No 3. Perhaps I will cycle back to No 2. I have it in my mind to revisit Honegger chamber music, so the Pfitzner exploration may be brief.

Yes someone mentioned Honegger quartets to me  with enthusiasm a couple of weeks ago, so I may check them at some point.

[Spotted Horses]

Second quartet better

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-music/id1108187390

 

Having listened, I agree that the second quartet is a cut above.

[Spotted Horses]

Yes someone mentioned Honegger quartets to me  with enthusiasm a couple of weeks ago, so I may check them at some point.

I stumbled on this recording decades ago, it still stands out in my mind.

[Mandryka]

Tremendous scherzo in the third quartet. Complicated - harmonically strange.

[Spotted Horses]

Tremendous scherzo in the third quartet. Complicated - harmonically strange.

I should return to that. The string quartets are what initially turned me on to Koechlin chamber music.