Sofia Gubaidulina - String Quartet No. 3 (1987)

Sofia Gubaidulina - String Quartet No. 3 (1987) Composer: Sofia Gubaidulina (1931 - 2025) Performers: Quatuor Molinari _______________________________________________ "As if to compensate for the Second Quartet’s near-absence of pizzicato, the Third, almost twice as long yet again in one movement, initially contains nothing but the plucking of strings. It, too, begins without metre though an ostinato figure on natural harmonics in the second violin provides a quasi-pulse over which the other instruments float independently. The soft, brittle soundscape is punctured by increasingly forceful shots, eventually ceding to strange conversations on pizzicato-glissandos. By far the most arresting timbre superimposes percussive Bartók pizzicato with a rustling produced by the rapid stroking of the strings with the fingers. So rich is Gubaidulina’s pizzicato palette that at no time does one yearn for a bowed note. But Gubaidulina’s rhetoric, for all its subtle timbral explorations, remains fundamentally dramatic, and drama relies on contrast. Thus, when bow finally meets string, we are catapulted into a new world that leads to a climactic passage of intense whining in the instruments’ high registers. This serves as a prelude to the work’s expressive core, a long episode in which sustained, stable chords nearly crystallize but wavering trills and pitch-blurring interfere, like ripples in a pond disrupting a clear reflection." ~Robert Rival Source: CD booklet _________________________________________________________________ For education, promotion and entertainment purposes only. If you have any copyrights issue, please write to unpetitabreuvoir(at)gmail.com and I will delete this video.