Scandinavia by Matangi Quartet

Edvard Grieg, David Monrad Johansen, Julius Röntgen

Matangi Quartet

Scandinavia

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917213720
Catnr: CC 72137
Release date: 08 September 2005
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917213720

Catalogue number
CC 72137

Release date
08 September 2005

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

The Matangi Quartet was founded in 1999 and is familiar to a very wide range of repertoire, from young Haydn up to contemporary composers, even performances with current popular singer-songwriters like Hermann van Veen are possibile.

Een Scandinavische connectie
Sinds de oprichting in 1999 werd het Nederlandse Matangi Kwartet meegevoerd in een stormachtige carrière en inmiddels zijn ze niet meer weg te denken uit het Nederlandse muziekleven. De vier leden steken al hun tijd en energie in dit strijkkwartet. Het kwartet voelt zich verbonden met een zeer breed repertoire. Dit is terug te vinden in hun concertprogramma’s met werken van de vroege Haydn, van de grote romantici en van eigentijdse componisten. De brede interesse van de musici heeft hen zelfs buiten de klassieke muziekwereld gevoerd, onder andere in een samenwerking met de Nederlandse cabaretier Herman van Veen. En hun naam? Matangi is een vierarmige Indiase godin van het gesproken woord en het symbool van universele kennis, waaronder alle vormen van kunst, muziek en dans. Zij is een kunstenares die haar eigen weg kiest in de samenleving.

Op dit album presenteren zij drie uiteenlopende werken voor strijkkwartet. Het eerste stuk op dit album is het eerste strijkkwartet dat Edvard Grieg geschreven had. Net als Griegs bekende Peer Gynt zijn de strijkkwartetten gevuld met lyriek en typische harmonieën die de het Noorse landschap en de sprookjesachtige folklore oproepen. Het tweede stuk, het Strijkkwartet op. 35, is van een andere Scandinavische grootmeester, David Monrad Johansen. Dat Johansen een zekere verwantschap voelde met zijn voorganger Edvard Grieg blijkt wel uit de omvangrijke biografie die hij van deze componist schreef, maar het blijkt ook uit de onstuimige, pure muziek die op geheel eigen wijze de Scandinavische traditie vertegenwoordigt. Ten slotte is het Quartettino van Julius Röntgen te horen, een tijdgenoot van Grieg die dankzij een gemeenschappelijke liefde voor muziek en natuur elkaar meerdere malen troffen in het Noorse landschap. Röntgen was aan het einde van de negentiende en begin twintigste eeuw een sleutelfiguur in het Nederlandse muziekleven. Hij was onder andere pedagoog, musicus, organisator, één van de oprichters van het Amsterdams Conservatorium en componist. Zijn Quartettino is een onafgemaakt strijkkwartet dat op een mooie wijze de werken van Grieg en Johansen aanvult.

Artist(s)

Matangi Quartet

The Matangi Quartet was founded in 1999 by four young musicians then studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and the Conservatory of Rotterdam. In 2003 Matangi completed the two-year, full-time course at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy under the direction of Stefan Metz (cellist, Orlando Quartet). At the Academy, the Matangi Quartet had the opportunity to take lessons from international renowned musicians, including the members of the Amadeus Quartet. The quartet also received intensive mentoring from Henk Guittart (violist, Schönberg Quartet) for several years. The Matangi Quartet has since developed into a regular performer in the Dutch chamber music scene and abroad. With their impassioned playing and smart presentation, Maria-Paula, Daniel, Karsten and Arno epitomize a new generation of...

The Matangi Quartet was founded in 1999 by four young musicians then studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and the Conservatory of Rotterdam. In 2003 Matangi completed the two-year, full-time course at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy under the direction of Stefan Metz (cellist, Orlando Quartet). At the Academy, the Matangi Quartet had the opportunity to take lessons from international renowned musicians, including the members of the Amadeus Quartet. The quartet also received intensive mentoring from Henk Guittart (violist, Schönberg Quartet) for several years.
The Matangi Quartet has since developed into a regular performer in the Dutch chamber music scene and abroad. With their impassioned playing and smart presentation, Maria-Paula, Daniel, Karsten and Arno epitomize a new generation of classical musicians. They are often characterized by words such as communicative, provocative and refreshingly versatile. The Matangi Quartet has shared the stage with various top-class classical musicians such as the Schönberg Quartet, the Royal Quartet, Miranda van Kralingen, Tania Kross, Ivo Janssen, Paolo Giacometti and Severin von Eckardstein.
The quartet has also been invited to perform in various festivals and concert series, including the Delft Chamber Music Festival, the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Orlando Festival, the Robeco Summer Concert Series in Amsterdam, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Festival van Carthage in Tunisia, the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai and the International Conservatoire Festival in St Petersburg. Since 2005 the quartet has presented its own concert series in the ‘Beurs van Berlage’ in Amsterdam.
In 2002 Matangi was awarded the prestigious Kersjes van de Groenekan Award, an annual prize awarded to exceptional chamber music talent in the Netherlands. In 2008 the quartet won third prize at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar. The Matangi Quartet released several CDs issued by Challenge Records International which all received great critical acclaim. The latest releases were the CDs ‘Mendelssohn’ (2009) and ‘Candybox’ (2010). Together with viola da gamba player Ralph Rousseau the quartet won the Edison Audience Award 2009, for their CD ‘Chansons d’amour’ (Challenge Records 2008).
Matangi regularly participates in innovative crossover projects and has performed in collaboration with artists such as cabaretiers Herman van Veen and Youp van ’t Hek, bandoneon player Carel Kraayenhof, jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans, DJ Kypski, jazz vocalists Mathilde Santing and Renske Taminiau, singer songwriters Lory Liebermann and Tom McRae. These pioneering excursions beyond the borders of classical music have resulted in Matangi winning an enthusiastic new public for the string quartet. No less important, this has provided a source of inspiration for infusing performances of the rich classical repertoire built up over the past 250 years – from Haydn to Adès – with new élan. For essentially, the Matangi are focused on just one thing: letting the audience palpably experience the energy, passion and excitement that is inherent in all good music.
All four musicians perform on instruments of Dutch workmanship. The cello and first violin have been provided on loan by the Dutch National Musical Instrument Foundation.
Who is Matangi? Matangi is the Indian goddess of speech, music and writing. The vina that she carries in her hand is an instrument that produces deep sounds with pleasing overtones. Matangi transports her listeners with her playing on the strings of passion, fervour, love and ecstasy.

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Maria-Paula Majoor

Daniel Torrico Menacho

Karsten Kleijer

Nander Cirkel

Composer(s)

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvořák did in Finland and Bohemia, respectively. Grieg is regarded as simultaneously nationalistic and cosmopolitan in his orientation, for although born in Bergen and buried there, he travelled widely throughout Europe, and considered his music to express both the beauty of Norwegian rural life and the culture of Europe as a whole. He is...

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvořák did in Finland and Bohemia, respectively.
Grieg is regarded as simultaneously nationalistic and cosmopolitan in his orientation, for although born in Bergen and buried there, he travelled widely throughout Europe, and considered his music to express both the beauty of Norwegian rural life and the culture of Europe as a whole. He is the most celebrated person from the city of Bergen, with numerous statues depicting his image, and many cultural entities named after him.

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Julius Röntgen

Röntgen wrote sixteen String Trios, fifteen of which have never been published. For the most part, the Trios were also neither numbered nor named by the composer (an exception being the Walzer Suite), leaving the year of composition and key signature as the only means of their identification.
For someone who had starting composing in his teens, it is surprising that Röntgen came to the genre of String Trios only later in life, completing his first trio in 1915 at the age of 60 and the last trio in 1930, two years before his death. The reasons for this remain obscure, but it is clear that chamber music played an important part in Röntgen’s life. In 1912, he formed a professional piano trio with two of his sons from his first marriage (Engelbert, a cellist, and Julius Jr., a violinist). With this ensemble, he gave concerts for years. However, Röntgen had another favourite instrument, the viola, and with two sons from his second marriage (Edvard and Joachim), he played string trios, presumably only at home, where he himself played the viola parts.
At the end of 1919, Röntgen became an official citizen of the Netherlands. Shortly thereafter he celebrated his 65th birthday, but instead of decreasing his activities and responsibilities, he kept himself busier than ever. He retained his position as director of the Amsterdam Conservatory until 1924, accepted private students, and even started to concertize again. From 1920 to 1923, Röntgen composed a great deal of vocal music, chamber music (including several string quartets), some orchestral pieces, concertos, and a number of contrapuntal works for piano.

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