Nikolai Yakovlievich Myaskovsky
(1881-1950)
Complete String Quartets, Volume 5
String Quartet #12 in G Major, Op. 77
String Quartet #13 in A minor, Op. 86
Taneyev Quartet
Northern Flowers 9954 54:40
Russian Disc, in the early 1980's released all 13 of the Myaskovsky string quartets performed by the Taneyev Quartet (Vladamir Ovcharek, violin; Grigory Lutzky, violin; Vissarion Solovyev, viola and Josef Levinzon, cello). They have been unavailable for some time. Now Northern Flowers and the Saint Petersburg Musical Alliance have re-released these fine discs. It is cause for celebration!
The Quartets #12 and #13 are perhaps the most accessible of the quartets. The style is rich and the part writing is splendid – something interesting is always going on in each voice. There is Russian flavor, but it is atmospheric, not in a direct quotation of folk material. If you enjoy the quartets of Prokofiev and Shostakovich, you will most certainly find much to please you in this disc of Myaskovsky's quartets.
