RUED LANGGAARD (1893-1952): String Quartets, Vol. 3- No. 1, BVN 68*, No. 5, BVN 189, Italian Scherzo, BVN 408*. * - World Premiere Recordings.

Description: This short series comes to an end with two firsts: No. 1, of 1914-15 and revised in 1936, its final movement being used in the same slot in No. 5, and the Italian Scherzo of 1950, a two-minute snippet with an attached note by the disillusioned composer. No. 1 has never been performed since a private run-through in 1916 and has Richard Straussian Romanticism almost throughout but with rapid shifts of mood and some sudden eruptions of agitation. No. 5 (1925) was performed in 1929 as Faraway Melodies and in 1942 as Moods of Forgetfulness; Langgaard here anachronistically but purposely inhabits a pre-Nielsen world here of Romanticism circa 1850. * - World Premiere Recordings. Nightingale String Quartet.