FRANZ SCHUBERT

STRING QUARTETS # 2 - Live in Barcelona

Why, one might ask, would a Spanish string quartet make a live recording in Barcelona of the complete quartets of a long-dead Viennese composer for a label which insists upon working with living composers? What binds Cuarteto Casals, Franz Schubert and Neu Records together?

Outward perception and inward imagination: these hallmarks of Schubert’s style could serve equally well as the distillation of a string quartet’s ideals. We look above all inward: it is our very private and personal conversation that you, the listener, happen upon, a given concert only one more step in our individual and collective evolution. And at the same time the concerts documented here, performed in the hall we inaugurated and know best, depend on outside perception – on the audience in the hall or the listener alone at home. We have lived with these great works for well over a decade; indeed Cuarteto Casals was founded so as to be able to play ‘Death and the Maiden.’ What we present to you here is a snapshot of our experience with these masterpieces, hopefully bringing the unfamiliar listener into our collective imagination.

When we began performing the Schubert cycle (Barcelona was the last stop on a tour that included London, Schwarzenberg, Florence, Lisbon and Madrid, among other cities) a colleague asked why we agreed to this massive undertaking. Are the early Schubert quartets worthwhile in the way that the Opus 18 Beethoven quartets undeniably are? Of course the comparison is inherently unjust: at around the same age that Beethoven was publishing his first quartets, Schubert was writing his late masterpieces.

The unfair comparison notwithstanding, the early Schubert quartets are rich with so many of the characteristics with which we identify his mature style: daring harmonic turns, an elegant yet unpredictable sense of meter and phrasing and his assimilation of myriad styles from Ländler to overture, from fugal intricacies to folksong. That is to say, to discover the young Schubert is to find a treasure trove of materials, waiting to be moulded into their most perfect form.

Schubert remains a ‘modern’ composer even nearly 200 years after his death. The Schubert we experience in this great body of quartets, ‘wandering into far-off lands’ and ‘divided by love and pain’ has as much to say about our condition in the 21st Century as it did to his close circle of friends in Vienna. It was in this spirit that we set about making this live recording, in hopes that a listener beyond the limits of that hall on those nights would join us in discovering these great works anew.

VERA, ABEL, ARNAU AND JONATHAN

Reviews

“This is wonderful playing, and the performance of all three works gains a lot from being seen as well as heard. One always speculates -at least I do- about the dynamics, artistic and personal, of string quartet performers, but I have never felt that I have seen such a happy team as the Cuarteto Casals. Not only their glances and occasional smiles, but their whole body language suggest a harmonious group each member of which retains his or her personality....
Michael Tanner.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
“El nivel interpretativo de los Casals, que ya llevan 20 años de andadura juntos, es enorme, inmenso. El cuarteto ha alcanzado finalmente la excelencia. La grabación que, como corresponde, alcanza su cima en ‘La muerte y la doncella’, cautiva por la capacidad técnica de los intérpretes, por el estado de concentración de todos en todo momento, por la unidad de intención, la intensidad expresiva y la pertinencia de estilo....

BABELIA. EL PAÍS
“Era de esperar que el Casals volviese antes o después a los cuartetos de Schubert, a los que sientan de fábula su elegancia en el fraseo, su igualdad en el sonido y su consumado dominio del estilo. Pero grabar todos ellos en directo desde el Auditori de Barcelona, con la presión de las cámaras, los micros y el público acechando constantemente, es una proeza al alcance sólo de los mejores y los más valientes....

REVISTA SCHERZO
“El resultat és un producte de cuidat disseny que ens permet veure el Quartet Casals com mai no ho haviem fet abans: plans curts que ens revelen on dirigeixen les seves mirades, com treballen amb els seus arcs (…) L’estètica visual concorda amb la proposta sonora, la qual aconsegueix un so pulcre i fidel al directe, sense perdre l’energia del moment: l’entorn s’elimina en un fons negre i tota l’atenció queda fixada en els músics (…) Un petit tresor. Imprescindible.”

REVISTA MUSICAL CATALANA
“El Cuarteto Casals está acostumbrado a romper moldes. (…) La primera grabación en directo de los 15 cuartetos de cuerda de Franz Schubert en alta definición, en una colección de cinco DVD/Blu-ray de una calidad de vídeo y sonido excepcional.

EL PAÍS
“L’esdeveniment musical va més enllà de la qualitat sonora i la definició de vídeo (…) En realitat, la inversió es tradueix en aquest intangible que és la calidesa i la profunditat indispensable per recrear l’energia única que es genera en un concert.”

LA VANGUARDIA
“Las interpretaciones extraen de aquellos sus notables cualidades, entendiendo con gran dramatismo y fuerte tensión el D 810. Son logros de primera magnitud, comparables a lo mejor que conocemos. Una publicación, pues, ejemplar, a seguir.”

REVISTA RITMO
“Una interpretació brillant”

SONOGRAMA MAGAZINE
“La interpretació és plena de lluminositat, amb un so tan compacte com ric i tan subtil com poètic.”

REVISTA SEGARRA

Cuarteto Casals · Franz Schubert · Complete String Quartets # 1 from Neu Records on Vimeo.

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track list

DVD / BLU-RAY