Search - Michael Finnissy, Kreutzer Quartet :: Kreutzer Quartet plays Michael Finnissy

Strange and beautiful

John Wearden | Manchester United Kingdom | 06/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finnissy seems to be best known as a composer for piano (via his "transcriptions" of, actually reworkings of fragments of material from, Verdi and Gershwin, and his piano concertos, some for piano solo), but here is his music for string quartet (although the booklet with the disc warns you not to expect conventional string quartet writing). One of the themes of the music is lack of conventional temporal synchronization between the parts. Only some of the pieces have full scores for the whole quartet, others depend on the chance juxtaposition of what seem to be independent (but apparently fully-notated) parts for the four instruments. The first 3 pieces ("Plain Harmony") are slightly distorted versions of what the title suggests: hymn-like, perhaps Ivesian, part-writing which drifts in and out of consonance, presumably as the different instruments fall in and out of synchronization. "Nobody's Jig" follows, lasting for nearly 20 minutes: a scurrying and dissonant opening, perhaps reminiscent of Carter's 3rd. quartet, with later more tranquil sections, suggesting East-European rhythms and harmonies. Another longish piece, "Multiple forms of constraint", contrasts a solo violin playing Bulgarian folk melodies, with complex, sometimes microtonal, material from combinations of the other instruments. The last work, the only thing described as a "string quartet" on the whole disc, is a 20+ minute work (completely composed), with an extraordinary 7-minute long section played so molto pianissimo as to be virtually inaudible: the shock when the instruments start playing at normal volume mis difficult to properly describe. The trick is partially repeated towards the end of the work. Anyone interested in modern quartet music after Carter, Ferneyhough, Reynolds, should listen to this disc."