The contrast between Quadri's work, his only string quartet (circa 1923/24), which is probably presented here in the first recording ever – perhaps premiered by the Asasello Quartet after its rediscovery in 2023 – and his turbulent and far too short life could not be greater. Nothing is heard of the horrors of the war (in revolutionary times he first fought in the White Army, and later worked for the Reds before he could finally begin his music studies at the age of around thirty) and the repressive measures that he must have experienced as an aristocrat, before he was insanely sentenced to death, completely innocent, by shooting. His music is free, coherent, beautiful, and full of vitality.
In times when history is repeating itself, when tyranny and senseless brutality are on the rise again, there is hope when a jewel like this can be rediscovered and made to sparkle. When we play these well-written notes, it is a bit like a resurrection, flesh on a skeleton that was nameless until its rehabilitation in 2017.
Extra material for download
