This post is specifically for my admirable colleague Squirrel of "Squirrel's Nest." You all know Squirrel is the absolute king and connoisseur of chamber music and I, for one, am most grateful for his terrific posts, often introducing me to artists that I only might have heard of or even NEVER heard of. One such group that I came to admire through Squirrel is the Curtis Quartet whose members were: Jascha Brodsky - 1st Violin, Louis Berman - 2nd Violin, Max Aronoff - Viola, and Orlando Cole - Cello. Here is an absolute splendid album by this group - Schumann's Op. 41, Nos. 1 & 3.
These quartets were conceived quickly and were written while Schumann was inspired by ,after close study, the quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Schumann. I must say that I find Schumann a singularly fascinating character. He could go weeks, months even, without any real compositional activity of note and then bam! in a flash of inpiration and white heat, turn out pages and pages of excellent music. Often Schumann found his muse when he was very high with excitement or, low in despair. Incredible. The works here are delights in that they contain stylistic hints ranging from Bach through Schubert but in the end, they are very much works of high romanticism.
In the good old days, there were many quartets playing the US, often associated with the preeminent music schools and universities. The Curtis Quartet is certainly of that ilk and they had a long, probably 30 year association with the Curtis School. Interestingly, the group started their existence as the "Swastika Quartet"...I kid you not! When Hitler came to power in Europe, Mary Louise Curtis gave the quartet permission to formally incorporate Curtis into their name. Prior to the war, The Curtis Quartet was the foremost American born and bred ensemble of its kind and for many, it was a near household name. After the war, as the members took on other teaching and playing responsibilities, concerts and touring became less though the nucleus of the group was together through the 1970's. Among the most famous works written for the Curtis was Barber's masterpiece, his Op 11 which contains the famous "Adagio."
This Westminster issue, WL 5166, dates from 1952. If only the Curtis had recorded Number 2!
