Zygmunt Noskowski (1846-1909)
String Quartets
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Viotti (1873)
String Quartet No 2 in Eb major (1879-1883)
Humorous Quartet in D major ‘Each in their own way’ (c.1887)
Meccore String Quartet
rec. 2025, Polish Radio, Warsaw
Capriccio C5559 (50)
It may be that the prospect of a thirty-six-minute string quartet by a composer you have never heard of does not fill you with much interest – but I would ask you to think again.
Noskowski was Poland’s leading composer in the second half of the nineteenth century. His photographic portrait found in the booklet makes him look like a rather severe bank manager turning down a loan, but amongst his many virtues he devised a notation system for blind students and his style is rather more adventurous than the photograph might suggest.
In preparing this review, I listened again to his wonderful symphonic poem ‘The Steppe’ of 1897 (Olympia OCD 389 nla) which, in its opening is almost impressionist. It is true to say, however, that the Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Viotti is an early work and, especially the fugue, is rather academic but well-crafted and formally very satisfying. The theme, not surprisingly, is little known but is taken from a Duo for Two Violins and is certainly memorable, and it’s pleasing to follow its often-elaborate development.
The 2nd Quartet took the composer four years to complete to his satisfaction. The first movement is by far the longest and is in a conventional sonata form with all sections repeated. It’s marked Allegro serioso but has many lighter passages and is memorably lyrical right from its start. The Allegretto vivace comes next and, according to Jens F. Laurson’s very interesting booklet essay, is ‘centred around a folksy ‘cracovienne’ which is a fast, often syncopated Polish dance. It bustles along with busy counterpoint for just less than five minutes. The third movement is dominated by a rather Slavic melody mostly given to the viola. I agree with Laurson in that the inspiration may well be late Beethoven, especially the rather ghostly homophonic passages marked ‘pp misterioso’. It’s all though very original and well worth a deep listen. This leads without delay into an eventful and technically rather demanding and flouncy finale, again, much complex counterpoint underpinning the melody line given largely to the first violin. It is, it seems, another dance, this one in triple metre, an ‘obertas’ but mood and tempi changes do add variety as well as little cadenza for the first violin. The coda begins as a rather tame fugue which seems a little out of place, but it ends with a reminder the dance rhythm.
The disc ends with an oddity, but a witty oddity, called Humorous Quartet in D major and is, in just four minutes, a series of at least six differing Polish dance melodies which by moving between the instruments results in the subtitle ‘Each to his own’ or it could be translated ‘As you like it’. And so, you must decide if you like the sound of Noskowski, a composer who represents the height of Polish Romanticism but who has got lost in the musical developments which followed soon after his death.
The Meccore Quartet play with a real sense of affinity to this music. It seems that they have a wide repertoire, but this is clearly their forte and they have been recorded in a close but commodious studio acoustic which works ideally. Perhaps a little niche, but well worth exploring.
Gary Higginson
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