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- Original Release Date: 10 Feb 1997
- Format - Music: MP3
- Compatible with MP3 Players (including with iPod®), iTunes, Windows Media Player
- Also available in CD Format
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| Song Title | Time | Price | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play | 1. Already It Is Dusk: String Quartet No. 1, op. 62 | 14:10 | Album Only | ||
| Play | 2. Quasi Una Fantasia: String Quartet No. 2, Op.64--l. Largo Sostenuto - Mesto | 8:08 | £0.69 | ||
| Play | 3. Quasi Una Fantasia: String Quartet No. 2, Op.64--ll. Deciso - Energico: Furioso, T | 6:47 | £0.69 | ||
| Play | 4. Quasi Una Fantasia: String Quartet No. 2, Op.64--lll. Arioso: Adagio Cantabile | 7:27 | £0.69 | ||
| Play | 5. Quasi Una Fantasia: String Quartet No. 2, Op.64--lV. Allegro - Sempre Con Grand | 9:46 | £0.69 |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Having encountered the ubiquitous 3rd symphony, this was my next Gorecki purchase. The music is modern and challenging but all the more worthwhile for it. If you like string music of Nyman and Glass this won’t present too much of a challenge.
The music is complex, plaintive and angry at the same time. 'Already It Is Dusk' being thoroughly modern 'Quasi una Fantasia' brooding and dangerous. Well worth the time and effort.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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8 reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Superb
16 Nov 1999
Format:Audio CD
If you want to have the myth of "Gorecki the Mystic" dispelled for you, listen to these quartets. They are undeniably thorny works, full of Bartokian fire, polytonality and brutal momentum - used to ends as musically engaging as the Third Symphony, though very different. The Quartet No.1 "Already It Is Dusk" in particular, with its fervent prayer for deliverance underlying its somber chorales and furious dances, is as moving as that former work. "Quasi una Fantasia" is more drawn-out and more enigmatic, with its quiet "Beethovenian" cadences emerging in between earthy folksong and propulsive rhythms. Nonesuch's sound is excellent, and the Kronos are perhaps the ideal interpreters of this music.
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Quasi una Fantasia
1 Dec 2000
Format:Audio CD
Gorecki's String Quartet No. 2, Op. 64 - Quasi una Fantasia - is an intense and heart stirring composition I have no doubt about rating five stars.
There is, however, a preliminary consideration to be made: this piece of music, more than others, asks for cooperation, lots of it, and it will not satisfy listeners who are unwilling to award it with such cooperation. The reason for this, paradoxically, rests in the quartet's overtly simple and stubbornly repetitive inner structure, which is very likely to annoy listeners who either are untrained to minimalist music, or (even more so, perhaps, in this case) believe that simplicity of form essentially entails a lack of ideas. In other words, in order for those approaching Gorecki's Quasi una Fantasia to thoroughly enjoy it (and comprehend it), they must cooperate - that is, suspend skepticism and let the music exercise its hypnotic suggestion on them. If they do not, they'll inevitably miss its point and therefore find it exceedingly simple and consequently discharge it.
But now, lets take a closer look at Gorecki's quartet from the standpoint of those who, like myself, through cooperation, allow it to function effectively... Quasi una Fantasia - in my opinion very nearly a "hallucination," rather than merely a "fantasy" - is a well spun, taut web it's hard for one to get out of, once one has fallen into it. In general, it steps forward by means of constant and cumulative repetitions, which gradually produce a snowball effect, inevitably submerging its listeners: very brief themes are reiterated and lengthened in the process, thus leading to immensely long bars, which cause one, literally, to skip a heartbeat. This development is not unaccompanied: deeply-set and never-so-stubborn ostinatos give the piece further cohesion, while swelling its unhealthy, beautifully morbid quality. Although fragments of Polish folk music shed light on the composition, its general mood, as I see it, is rather dark. The third movement, in particular, conveys a sense of gloominess which is so desperate it may be thought of as pure madness. The last movement, however, seems to state that there is hope, and that joy - often unexpectedly - emerges from and defeats anguish.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Context -- A Maker or Breaker
25 Sep 2007
Format:Audio CD
"Quasi una Fantasia" is based on a style of traditional Polish folk music that originated in the mountainous south of the country. The bass is played on a cello while viola and violin accompany with a strict 2/4, on-beat staccato rhythm. Meanwhile, the lead violin plays melodies that are simplistic on the first listening, but become incredibly complex in their timing when listened to with an ear for nuance.
What Gorecki has done with QuF is set that style of music in a modern, somewhat atonal mode.
If you are unfamiliar with the original style of playing, it might sound a little monotonous. If you're familiar with any Goralski music, you'll smile through the whole piece.
What Gorecki has done with QuF is set that style of music in a modern, somewhat atonal mode.
If you are unfamiliar with the original style of playing, it might sound a little monotonous. If you're familiar with any Goralski music, you'll smile through the whole piece.
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