IDAGIO | Arensky: String Quartet No. 2 – Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence 00602458154054

Featuring

Anthony Marwood
Krysia Osostowicz
Timothy Boulton
James Boyd
Andrea Hess
Michael Stirling

Raphael Ensemble
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Anton Arensky

Did you know?

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Compositional Technique

Arensky's Quartet features an unusual scoring for violin, viola, and two cellos, which contributes to its sombre, funereal atmosphere.

Composition History

Tchaikovsky's 'Souvenir de Florence' was sketched in under two weeks and fully scored in eleven days, but he was initially unhappy with it and revised it a year later.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Tchaikovsky found composing 'Souvenir de Florence' difficult due to the novelty of the string sextet form, feeling he was writing for an orchestra and rearranging it for six instruments.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded in two stages: studio sessions at St George's, Brandon Hill, followed by a public concert in the same venue, allowing the musicians to take risks.

Composer Biography

Anton Arensky, whose quartet is on this album, struggled with alcohol and gambling addictions, which led to his health deteriorating and his death from tuberculosis at age forty-five.

Composition History

Anton Arensky's String Quartet No. 2 is dedicated to the memory of Tchaikovsky and uses musical quotations as a homage.

Composer Biography

Anton Arensky, a composer on this album, studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov and taught Rachmaninov, Scriabin, and Glière at the Moscow Conservatory.