Kabalevsky

String Quartets Nos 1 & 2 Stenhammar Quartet

CPO 555 006-2 62:58 mins

Surely few listeners in a ‘blind test’ would identify the composer of the first of these quartets. Composed in 1928, it opens with a gentle, Pärt-like lullaby, yet pre-dates that Estonian composer’s tintinnabuli style by about 50 years. Its distinctive motif of a falling fourth is then speeded up and harmonised in post-ravelian style for the main Allegro, taking on a wistful style usually thought of as pastoral English. And so it continues, with a scherzo Arthur Bliss might have written. Only the third movement’s Slavic-like themes, followed by a finale with Stravinsky Petrushkalike touches, might hint at the composer’s nationality. That, and the quartet’s mildly poignant Chausson-like character, may also suggest the handiwork of a pupil of Myaskovsky’s. Still, it is some distance from the carefree style usually associated with Kabalevsky.

The Second Quartet, composed shortly after World War II, is perhaps more ‘typical’ since Kabalevsky now pays stylistic tribute to Prokofiev. Maybe it’s an easy game to spot the influences (the booklet writer identifies in the first movement a direct...