MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG (1919-1996): String Quartets, Vol. 3 - No. 6, Op. 35, No. 8, Op. 66 and No. 15, Op. 124.

Description: Quartet fans and Weinberg fans will need no urging here so we merely point out that the 1948 Sixth is on a huge scale, its six movements lasting 33 minutes and it contains the most Shostakovichian music of the three works on this disc, covering a broad emotional range and demanding much of both audience and performers. On the other hand, the single-movement Eighth of 1959 is a much more inward-looking work of only 17 minutes while the Fifteenth (1980) is Weinberg's most experimental, consisting of nine short movements (26 minutes in all) which make all manner of unusual demands on the players in terms of rhythms, dynamics and playing techniques. Quatuor Danel.