Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga
The complete string quartets on period instruments

La Ritirata
Hiro Kurosaki, violin
Miren Zeberio, violin
Daniel Lorenzo, viola Josetxu Obregón, violoncello

PROGRAMME
Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga (1806-1826)
Quartet no. 2 in A major
01 Allegro con brio
02 Andante. Tema con variaciones 03 Minuetto: Scherzo. Trio
04 Andante ma non troppo. Allegro
Quartet no. 1 in D minor
05 Allegro
06 Adagio con espressione
07 Menuetto: Allegro. Trio: Più moderato 08 Adagio. Allegretto
Quartet no. 3 in E flat major
09 Allegro
10 Pastorale: Andantino
11 Minuetto: Allegro. Trio: Plus lent 12 Presto agitato
13 Tema variado en cuarteto, op. 17

PRODUCTION DETAILS
Total playing time 76:39
Recorded in Madrid (Real Conservatorio de Música, Sala Tomás Luis de Victoria), in June and July 2013
Engineered by Federico Prieto
Produced by Federico Prieto and J. Obregón Executive producer: Carlos Céster
English - Français - Español - Euskera - Deutsch Made in Austria by Sony DADC

In this new recording the Bilbao-born Obregón is joined by violinists Hiro Kurosaki and Miren Zeberio, and viola Daniel Lorenzo; the underlying spirit of La Ritirata is of an intensive consideration of musical (and other) sources before attempting fresh interpretations of scores. This is precisely what the musicians have done for this survey of Arriaga’s quartet output for Glossa – they have also included the Tema variado en cuarteto, Op 17 – in order to get closer to the sound world of the Spanish composer who left his native Basque Country at the age of 15 to study and compose in Paris in 1821. Five short years of life remained to him before an untimely death ended a hugely promising career.

Original scores, a violin treatise by Arriaga’s teacher in Paris and the use of period instruments (for the first time on a recording of the Arriaga works) form the backbone of the critical apparatus for La Ritirata’s new and vital approach to these portentous works – by a composer for whom the ongoing reappraisal of his significance in music is currently being shorn of its romantic legend and replaced by an assessment which is still intriguing but greatly more realistic.

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