The Name You Trust for Classical Music

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the COMPACT DISC Arriaga: String Quartets (Complete)

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Sale on select Chandos titles

Sale on select BBC Legends Items

Naxos Classics Clearance Sale

Sale on select Naxos American Classics

Sale on Charles Dickens DVD Box Set

Sale on select box sets

Clearance on Complete Beethoven Edition

Sale on the Jazz Icons Series

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

Arriaga: String Quartets (Complete)

Home

Classical Music

Chamber Music

View large image

$9.99 (COMPACT DISC)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this COMPACT DISC Link to this page

Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826) String Quartets Interest in the music of Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga began to revive in the late nineteenth century....

Read more about this recording

Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826)

String Quartets

Interest in the music of Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga began to revive in the late nineteenth century. Since then, his works have earned the admiration of the music world, confirming the fact that his premature death meant the loss not only of an individually brilliant composer, but also perhaps of a significant link in the development of musical history itself.

Arriaga was born in Bilbao on 27th January 1806 and soon became renowned in the city's musical circles.

His earliest compositions include the divertimento Nada y mucho (1817), the Overture for nonet, Op. 1, and the two-act opera Los esclavos felices (The Happy Slaves), which was completed in 1819 and first performed to great acclaim in Bilbao a year later. That same year Arriaga wrote the Tema variado en cuarteto, Op. 17, and La h�ngara, a theme and variations for violin and ad libitum bass.

In 1821 he moved to Paris, where he studied the violin with Pierre Baillot and composition with Fran�ois-Joseph Fetis. He put in very long hours, working both as a performer and as Fetis's teaching assistant in his counterpoint and fugue classes. The great majority of his extant works date from his time in Paris: three string quartets, a number of stage works such as Agar and Erminia, the Symphony and the Three Studies or Caprices for piano. His excessive workload is the most probable cause of the pulmonary infection that led to his death in 1826.

Arriaga's three string quartets were published in Paris as the Premier Livre de quatuors in 1824 and, given the composer's early death, can be seen as works of relative maturity. These most accomplished pieces are rich in melody, with enormous technical precision in the contrapuntal writing of the different parts. Arriaga's genius for invention comes through in their innovative movement layout and structure, which differ somewhat from traditional models.

The Quartet No. 1 in D minor comprises four movements. The first, Allegro, develops a mournful theme to which a second, folk-inspired idea then responds. The Adagio is based on a long drawn-out phrase for first violin. In place of a scherzo, the third movement is a Menuet, whose trio features pizzicato chords with a guitar-like accompaniment. An adagio phrase which unexpectedly recurs before the conclusion acts as an introduction to the Allegretto finale.

Quartet No. 2 in A major is formally the most traditional of the three. The atmosphere of the Allegro is one of great vitality, in which the four instruments converse together, the four parts being remarkably independent but well balanced. The Andante con variaciones takes the place of a slow movement, the last variation created by a pizzicato effect. The Menuetto is followed by a cadenza-like passage which is repeated in the final Allegro, after the exposition.

Quartet No. 3 in E flat major is the most technically developed of the three pieces. The opening unison in the Allegro is followed by a concertante interchange of motifs between the instruments, the development being marked by its expressive nature and shifts in tonality.

The second movement is a Pastorale rather than an Adagio, whose different episodes feature various descriptive effects, for example the tremolo to suggest a storm. Arriaga then lifts his thematic writing to a high point in the final Presto agitato.

Santiago Gorostiza

Disc 1

String Quartet No. 1 in D minor

(more info)

Composed by: Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga

I. Allegro - 6:47
II. Adagio con espressione - 5:48
III. Menuetto - Allegro - Trio piu moderato - 2:53
IV. Adagio - Allegretto - 7:30

String Quartet No. 2 in A major

(more info)

Composed by: Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga

I. Allegro con brio - 8:10
II. Andante con variaciones - 6:46
III. Menuetto - Scherzo - Trio - 3:14
IV. Andante ma non troppo - Allegro - 4:50

String Quartet No. 3 in E flat major

(more info)

Composed by: Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga

I. Allegro - 7:53
II. Pastorale - Andantino - 5:46
III. Menuetto - Allegro - Trio plus lent - 3:08
IV. Presto agitato - 6:18

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.