Novus Quartet, Ophélie Gaillard, Lise Berthaud – Tchaikovsky: String Quartet & Souvenir de Florence (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:04:25 minutes | 1,05 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
After an audacious first-record dedicated to Webern, Beethoven and Yun, the young musicians of the Novus Quartet interpret with passion two essential works of Tchaikovsky’s chamber music: the First Quartet and the Sextuor « Souvenir de Florence » – for this work, the musicians are joined by two guests, cellist Ophélie Gaillard and violist Lise Berthaud. These two works, which are like milestones in the career of the Russian composer (the first is written in 1871, the second in 1887), show Tchaikovsky’s inclination for popular melodies. Clarity and technique serving musical expression, the fiery strings of the Novus Quartet spread a warm sound that impresses by its homogeneity, intensely invites to melancholy in slow movements, and fully transcribed the exaltation of Tchaikovsky’s poetic universe.
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Novus Quartet – Webern, Beethoven & Yun: String Quartets (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:14 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
This ensemble’s playing is incredibly solid and well-balanced. All four musicians perform at the same level and their music-making is enthralling.
It was with these words that Lukas Hagen, first violinist of the renowned Hagen Quartett, described the four musicians’ artistic quality after their performance at the International Mozart Competition, held in Salzburg in February 2014, where Hagen was the Head of the Jury. The quartet went on to win First Prize at the Competition.
This first album represents a crossing of their influences, both Korean (Yun, Arirang) and German (Webern, Beethoven).
Here, the Novus demonstrate prodigious technique in the service of exceptional musicality. Their versions of Werbern’s ‘Langsamer Satz’ and Beethoven’s ‘Quartetto Serioso’ will not pale in the game of comparisons.
In the style of a Bartók, Isang Yun’s Quartet, a discovery, takes up material from brilliantly colourful Korean musical folklore. ‘Arirang’ is Korea’s best-known and most popular folk song (inscribed on the Representative List of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity), a moving tribute from the four musicians to their homeland.
Established at the Korean National University of Arts in 2007, the Novus String Quartet is one of the leading chamber music ensembles in Korea. The Quartet studies under Professors Christoph Poppen and Hariolf Schlichtig at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.
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Michel Dalberto, Novus Quartet – César Franck: Piano Works & Quintet (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:07 minutes | 1,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Vlado Perlemuter and Jean Hubeau’s pupil, Michel Dalberto has established himself during a forty year career as a master. And as an ardent defender of French music he launched on Aparté a series dedicated to Debussy, Fauré, Franck and Ravel. “With these recordings of works of four major French composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, I wish to prove myself worthy of the teachers who used to provide a specific idea of French music made of severity and sensuality, a mixture of rigour and freedom.” After a first opus devoted to Debussy and a second to Fauré (both rewarded with international awards), Michel Dalberto chose the Salle Philharmonique in Liège to record the third part of this collection – that is to say in César Franck’s home town.
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Novus Quartet – Alban Berg: Lyric Suite – Franz Schubert: Death and the Maiden (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:18 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Aparté
Inspired by the black aura of Romanticism, Novus Quartet’s new disc brings together two major works from the Romantic repertoire. The finest Korean musicians put their virtuosity in the service of Schubert’s moving Death and the Maiden and Berg’sLyrical Suite. In their own way, these works proceed to the encryption of the feeling of love. It is not a question of hiding it but of expressing it more powerfully than with words. And the intermingling of reminiscences weaves an irresistible poetic discourse – Schubert quoting one of his Lieder and Berg as homage to Zemlinsky’s Symphonie Lyrique. A record that once again allows this captivating quartet to hear the full extent of his talents in romantic music, from the dawn of the period until his last fires. They literally thrive in this repertoire!
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Novus Quartet – Shostakovich: String Quartets No. 3 & No. 8 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 54:09 minutes | 541 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Aparté
Shostakovich was in his early thirties when he first turned to the string quartet. He planned to produce a full cycle of 24; he completed 15. These works embody his resistance to a crushing Soviet power that held the belief that all art should be political. At the same time, he used them as a means of personal, autobiographical expression, aimed at presenting a true depiction of himself as a man and an artist. Bringing together nos. 3 and 8, the Novus Quartet make Shostakovich’s revolt tangible, while faithfully representing the magnificent, heartrending world of this great composer.
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