Joseph Jongen
(1873-1953)
String Quartet #1 in C minor, Op. 3 (1894)
String Quartet #2 in A Major, Op. 50 (1916)
The Gong Quartet
Pavane Records ADW7483 69:24
Think of the most delightful late Romantic string quartets you have ever heard, and then listen to Jongen's First String Quartet. You will not be disappointed. This prize-winning youthful work was very popular until the post-WWI rejection of lovely Mendelssohnian Romanticism. The Second String Quartet, also a very beautiful composition, but quite different from the first, will thrill listeners and performers alike. It sounds like an extension of Debussy's string quartet, voluptuous, mysterious, exciting and colorful.
These quartets are performed by the splendid Gong Quartet: Hanxiang Gong, Yinlai Chen, violins; Jean Christophe Michallek, viola; and Martin Hesselbein, cello.
Sheet music for both quartets can be found at Edition Silvertrust
