ARTARIA RECORDING MOZART & SHOSTAKOVICH

Artaria is thrilled to be recording again. In the lovely acoustic of Sundin Music Hall, with our friend and colleague Anna Clift as our expert listener, we teamed up with recording engineer Cameron Wiley to put our interpretation to the vinyl - or hard disk actually.

Our first session was with Mozart's quartet in F major, K.590. Composed in 1790 after an interesting tour to Berlin to meet King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, this work dedicated to the Friedrich (an accomplished cellist) was more likely targeted to Duport, his director of chamber music and a renowned artist on the cello.

The works is progressive in its structure with Mozart beginning to look anew at the string quartet medium. A compelling quartet to perform and listen to, it is a thorny work to record with a start/stop theme in the opening movement; a delicate almost pleading andante (allegretto) movement; a menuetto with unusual 7 and 5 bar phrase lengths; and a complex overlay of voices in the last movement that gave us pause midsession - "what could we have done differently to prepare this movement?".

The Shostakovich Quartet No.3 was, not surprisingly, easier to engage with and present. The 5 movements of this "war" quartet were created in an over-arching progression that begins with a lithe and jaunty opening that moves along ominously with a wild display of impending devastation leaping forth from the pages of the 3rd movement. Doom and gloom are soon the order of the day, but wait! There is a glimmer of optimism in the final movement with a wonderful and hopeful closing.

This piece never fails to capture our audiences and Artaria has a solid feel for this Russian masterpiece. With the recording now captured, some judicious listening will help us choose the best takes for our disk and your listening pleasure.