Formed in Lithuania, the Mettis Quartet celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2022 and has chosen to mark the occasion with fresh interpretations of two Beethoven quartets that bookend his career: the String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, and the String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130, including the monumental 'Große Fuge', Op. 133.
Beethoven’s first set of string quartets, the six Op. 18 Quartets, were written when he was a young man and may even include material from his earliest years in Bonn. The fourth is full of purposeful energy, forthright and immediate, with a Hungarian-inspired finale that shows the influence of Haydn. 
Cut to 1825, two years before Beethoven’s death, and we find the composer in a more introspective frame of mind, wearied by deafness and the dramatic upheavals of his life, but responding by writing music of extraordinary profundity and beauty. Beethoven called the Op. 130 Quartet his “dear” quartet, but would never see it performed. In an expansive six movements, the work begins with a capricious opening movement and quicksilver scherzo, followed by a pastoral third movement and the ‘German dance’ of the fourth. Then comes the exquisite ‘Cavatina’. It is said that Beethoven was moved to tears when writing this movement: “Never did his music breathe so heartfelt an inspiration, and even the memory of this movement brought tears to his eyes”.
What follows is one of the greatest achievements in all music. Even now, the vast 'Große Fuge' sounds modern, with its jagged lines, wide leaps, dissonances, extreme contrasts of dynamic and tempo, moments of dark humour and unsettling shifts in mood. Contemporary audiences were not ready and Beethoven wrote an alternative final movement, but we hear the ‘Grand Fugue’ in all its glory, played on this recording with rigour and passion by the Mettis Quartet. The group takes its name from a Greek mythological figure known for her skill, wisdom and cunning, and these musicians bring those qualities to their interpretations of Beethoven’s music – with thrilling results.

06 - Ludwig Van Beethoven - String Quartet No 13 In B - Flat Major, Op. 130 - II Presto

Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu (1834) may be the musical equivalent of a posthumous tell-all book, but with more class, of course. Published after his death in 1855, this piece had Chopin channeling his inner Beethoven, and musicologist Ernst Oster was convinced that Chopin "got" Beethoven like no one else.

Now, this piece is like a rollercoaster ride through the classical world: sextuplets, semiquavers, and polyrhythms? Oh my! It's no wonder it's used as a test piece! We go from C# minor chaos to the smooth, lyrical shores of Db major, with a Bellini-inspired melody that's as graceful as a swan on a lake.

But wait! The pandemonium returns in 'Presto' like a caffeinated squirrel, only to wind down and end on a Picardy third, leaving you wondering, "Was that a Fantasie or an Impromptu?"

Could this whirlwind of a piece be the result of Chopin showing off at a swanky salon for Baroness Frances Sarah d'Este? We'll never know for sure, but one thing is certain: Fantasie-Impromptu has become a timeless classic, and if you listen closely, you might just hear the echoes of Chopin chasing rainbows.

This track is from the album F. Chopin: 4 Impromptus - F. Chopin: Piano Sonata No 3 in B Minor, Op. 58 - F. Chopin: Ballade No. 3 in a Flat Major, Op. 47 - F. Chopin: Scherzo No 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 31 and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/archiechen

My SoundCloud Channel: https://soundcloud.com/archie-chen
Official Website: http://www.archiechen.com
Youtube DIPF https://www.youtube.com/c/PianofestivalIe
Youtube Archie https://www.youtube.com/c/ArchieChenPianist
Festival Website: http://www.pianofestival.ie
Teaching Website: http://www.pianoacademy.ie

Piano: Fazioli F278
Recording Engineer: Jeremy Krug
Piano Technician: Dave Severence
Recorded at Washington State University School of Music

Frederic Chopin "Fantasie" Impromptu no. 4 in C Sharp Minor, op. 66

ISRC code: GBEKZ0500009
Composer: Massenet
Work: Meditation
Track: Meditation from "Thais"
Album: Fantasie

Conductor: Harding
Artist: Nicola Benedetti
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra

If you want more information about this track please e-mail sync@decca.com 
Please quote GBEKZ0500009 in the subject line.


Massenet: Meditation, Meditation From "Thais"

Songs from the Arc of Life

Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No. 4 (Arr. for Cello and Piano) [Brahms Lullaby]

Artists: TIberius Klausner, violin; Paul Hatton, violin; Hugh Brown, viola; Robert Battey, cello

The Volker String Quartet - April 21, 1991

Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op.110: iv. Largo

Classical Music for Meditation, Relaxation and Yoga. Famous Classical Music and Relaxing Classical Music Composers. Best Classical Music of All Time

Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.2

Album "Sierra y Arco" - Proyecto LupA
Serrucho musical: Mariano Morales.
Piano, acordeón y clarinete: Mariano Morales.
Músico invitado: Roco Palavecino (Trombón y trompeta).

Grabación y producción: Proyecto LupA.

02 - Gymnopédie No.3 - Erik Satie

Odradek Records is a democratic classical cooperative, non-profit and artist-controlled label and concert association, promoting new artists and fresh repertoire.

Entrance to our roster is through anonymous demo.

Our dream is utopian: to separate music-making from markets and create a just system of pure artistic meritocracy.


Odradek Records is not just a new record label. Odradek Records is the first wedge of a larger project, proposing a new way to produce and enjoy classical music. We think that the current model undermines the true essence and significance of music. We think that a model centered on just a few big names, the great concert halls, a limited repertoire that is necessarily restricted by the bonds of popularity--a model that makes its selection of new young performers from the anti-musical system of competitions, the success of which is often obtained through extravagant histrionics rather than the correctness or subtlety of interpretation--and finally, a model that is subject to the exploitation of the marketplace, and which obliges the majority of musicians to pay enormous sums to record CDs, for which the profits then go largely to the record company, thus depriving many very worthy but not wealthy musicians from the possibility of recording--is not only a model that is far from art, but is a model that even itself is in crisis. 

Ideally, music just as other primary goods, should not fall subject to the markets. We know that in a strict sense, this is utopian, but it is precisely this tension towards an unreachable utopia that guides our project.

Odradek Records is a non-profit seeking label. Once production and distribution expenses are recuperated, all of our proceeds go directly to the artist. Odradek Records selects its artists solely through the criterion of utmost quality of the recording and the interest of the proposed program. We don’t want to exclude, but rather include: we are not interested if you have won important competitions or not, neither if you have performed in important halls or signed with major labels. We are not interested in your age or where you come from. The only thing that interests us is whether you play your instrument to a very high and professional level. With us you can record Chopin, but you can also record: Berio, Scelsi, Copland, Carter, Webern, Schoenberg, Ligeti, Kurtag, Ives, and many others.

Our recording studio avails itself of the greatest technical instruments available today.

The distribution of our CDs is guided by an innovative criterion of transparency and flexibility in setting prices.
The rights of the composers and of the artist are protected by Creative Commons copyright (sometimes referred to as “copyleft” policy) because we want to render legal and free all those things that almost everybody already illegally does anyway.

We consider that the distribution of our music is not a one way street, but instead a dialogue. Only the presence of an active public gives true life to an artistic product. Write us. In the comments section you can leave opinions, suggestions, and criticisms of our music and our project. If you want to you can sign up as a “Friend of Project Odradek”, indicating your name, your profession, where you are from, and why you support Project Odradek. Send us your thoughts on the state of music, culture, and the arts: we’ll publish them on our blog.

If you like us, help us spread the word by linking to us from your blogs, sites, and through your social networks.

Odradek Records does not only produce CDs. We are convinced that the truest fruition of music happens in live concerts. For this reason we organize itinerant music festivals, moving from city to city, to promote our disks and music.

And finally, a word about our name: we borrow it from Kafka. Like the worried family man in Kafka’s tale, we are also worried. We are worried that music might become always more and more an odradek, an indefinable and incomprehensible being, whose voice sounds falsely, like the voice of one who is “without lungs”, a being without form, disturbingly replicating that which was once alive, that can plastically become whatever is wished for by those who posses the instruments of power and control. We wish for the cage-like railing surrounding the man of Kafka’s drawing to become instead an instrument to play - we would like to transform our prison into our liberty. 

We would like to restore music to its true role, that of artwork, and restore musical interpretation to its true function, the only one that opens itself towards the possibility of a future: that of a field of research.

Welcome to Project Odradek.

06 - Ludwig Van Beethoven - String Quartet No 13 In B - Flat Major, Op. 130 - II Presto

Odradek Records

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