Edvard Grieg’s G minor string quartet sounds terrific in this sensitive arrangement for string orchestra by Alf Ardal. The truth is that the work has a quasi-orchestral character anyway. Its wealth of double-stops and chordal writing generally benefits from the natural resonance and amplitude of larger forces, and banishes the criticism that Grieg failed to achieve a true quartet texture. Of course that complaint is largely nonsense, but the fact remains that the work has not achieved the popularity that it surely deserves. Here, as a veritable “symphony for strings”, especially in this gutsy, ferocious performance, it makes an unforgettable impression.
Arne Nordheim’s Rendezvous is another work for quartet that was later expanded for string orchestra. It has three well-proportioned movements. Much of the music is elegiac, though at times dramatic, and the concluding Nachruf (Epitaph) is quite beautiful. So much modern string writing, especially when it touches on darker feelings, simply sounds neurotic when not just plain irritating, but this work manages to be at once contemporary, passionate, and quite moving. As with the Grieg, the performances are splendid: bold, confident, ideally balanced, and quite wonderfully recorded.
