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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Paul D
This glorious album gives us yet another reason to be grateful to those good people at Dutton. Previous releases have treated us to the symphonies, piano concerto and some of the ballet scores for which Arnell (1917-2009) was most celebrated. Now, with the sterling input of the Tippett Quartet, they have turned their attention to the neglected British composer's works for String Quartet. Arnell was known as a fine orchestrator, and his talents in this field are much in evidence even on the more intimate scale of the chamber ensemble. The nine-minute first was written in 1939, and is a remarkably assured work for a twenty-two year-old. It is cast in a single terse movement and shows Arnell already in full control of musical form and ideas. The first performance was given in the year after composition by the Galimir Quartet, whose members had studied with Berg and Ravel. The next two quartets followed over the next few years, both in three movements and equally well-controlled. The fourth, from 1950, is once again in a single movement. Good though these works are, and there can be no doubt that these are very fine additions to the literature of the String Quartet, it is Arnell's Fifth Quartet, from 1962, which is the real treasure. Clearly foreshadowing Britten's third Quartet, it is the most expansive of the works here, being spread over seven fairly short movements. What is most noticeable about the structure of this first-rate work is the casting of the four final movements successively for one, two and then three instruments, before all four finally come together for the terse, dramatic finale. In addition to foreshadowings of Britten, Shostakovich is also brought to mind in the textures and sonorities favoured by Arnell.... Read more ›
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.5 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Out of the Haystack
18 Oct 2012
By J. R. Trtek
- Published on Amazon.com
English composer Richard Arnell (1917-2009) was visiting New York as World War II erupted, and he found himself stranded in America for the duration of the conflict. It was during that time that he apparently wrote three of the five string quartets included on this disc. (To my understanding, he composed six in all.) They are all thoughtful and engaging works, though I will admit a preference for the first three. The First Quartet is a one-movement work of under ten minutes, while the Second and Third Quartets are three-movement affairs that run 12 and 18 minutes, respectively. To my untrained ear, the spirit of late Beethoven appears sometimes in this first trio of quartets, with occasional dashes of Ravel overlaid with a sense of 20th Century Britain. Meanwhile, the Fourth Quartet is another one-movement composition, while the Fifth Quartet has seven sections that collectively take up around a dozen minutes. Both of these later works maintain the idiom of the first three, but to my mind they are somewhat less vigorous and compelling than the others. Before latching onto this release I'd listened exclusively to Arnell's orchestral music -- he wrote several symphonies and in his time was hailed primarily as a composer of ballet music. I approached this disc cautiously because modern string quartets are sometimes a bit off putting to me, often monotonous and all sounding much the same. This disc and I hit it off quite well from the very start, however. If you're seeking modern chamber music that is textured and complex but which still actually goes somewhere, or if you're just into all those somewhat obscure British composers of the mid-20th Century, you ought to give this one a try.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Scrambled, Nervewracking Mishmash!
24 Dec 2012
By Joel Kovacik
- Published on Amazon.com
The possibility certainly exists that after, say, ten more listenings to Arnell's excruciating, melody-bereft string quartets, I just might emerge "enlightened" enough to confess having gleaned something unexpectedly worthwhile from them. In the meantime, I simply don't have sufficient patience to continue tolerating the likes of this meandering, near-atonal hodgepodge of aimless screeching and soulless moaning.
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2.5 out of 5 stars
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