Gliere: String Quartet 4, Op. 83 (Beethoven Quartet)

The Beethoven Quartet playing Reinhold Gliere's String Quartet 4, Op. 83 (1943)
I. Allegro Moderato: 0:00
II. Vivace: 8:54
III. Theme and Variations: Andante: 13:02
IV. Allegro: 22:34
Westminster Records 1957
Dmitri Tsyganov (Violin I)
Vasily Shirinsky (Violin II)
Vadim Borisovsky (Viola)
Sergei Shirinsky (Cello)

[@h.r.f.schotanus9654]

Glière's harmonisations are a new style and we are pleasantly surprised hearing this unknown chamber music and try to start on his duo's. Good experiences, we should hear more of him in our concerthalls!

[@ianpatrickmchugh787]

Thank you for uploading this! I love Gliere's music, and his larger chamber works are true, rare gems!

[@ewaldsteyn469]

Thanks for uploading. From the 3 quartets of Gliere available on YT (nos. 1, 2 & 4) it is clear that he was a very composer of string quartets.

[@chrishill3341]

An excellent transcription of the old recording! Gliere is writing music in a conservative style, but you can tell he has something to say and is pushing his envelopes (especially in the last two movements) to say it. The result is a masterpiece.

[@ronaldbwoodall2628]

This is a sunny, Haydnesque quartet by a composer of mature insight and creativity who chose a very traditional idiom and never departed from it. It doesn't approach the depth and importance of the like-numbered (or any) Shostakovich quartet, but still, this and the other three of Gliere's string quartets should receive modern recordings so that their full worth could be appreciated.

[@priscianusjr]

I would hardly call this quartet, written in Russia in the depths of WW2 either "sunny" or "Haydnesque," but certainly Gliere was a composer of "mature insight and creativity who chose a very traditional idiom."

[@ewaldsteyn469]

Deserve manny more than just the 3 likes. Perhaps the rest onjoyed it sooo much, they forgot to press the thumbs up. Or they were death.

[@fransmeersman2334]

A very fine quartet, derserves a better sound recording.

[@davidjared3402]

Fine playing, but does anyone else feel like, overall, it's a "whiny" piece?

[@priscianusjr]

On the contrary, it's a fine piece, but somewhat "whiny" playing. Although the poor audio recording quality contributes to that. I believe the "whininess" comes mainly from the first violinist.

[@priscianusjr]

For some reason they sound better in the third and fourth movements than in the first two. Perhaps the engineer readjusted the settings. - I have owned a copy of this record since think the late 1960s, and it is still growing on me. I like the whole piece but the slow movement (theme and variations) is really striking my fancy these days. I don't think any other recording exists and i don't think it's in anyone's repertoire. Contemporary quartet playing has reached a very high level and a modern ensemble could do wonders with it.