チャピ: 弦楽四重奏曲第3番・第4番

スペインの作曲家チャピは主にサルスエラ(スペイン語によるスペイン風オペラ)作曲家として活躍しましたが、その長いとは言えない生涯の晩年に弦楽四重奏曲を4曲作曲しています。第3番はニ長調を採りながら短調に傾斜した激しく悲劇的な雰囲気の濃い作品。緩徐楽章を持たない第4番はロ短調ながら軽妙さや躍動感のある作品です。
演奏する「ラテン・アメリカ弦楽四重奏団」はその名の通り、ヴィラ=ロボスやチャベスなどの南米の音楽と、その基になったスペインの音楽を得意とするアンサンブルです。メキシコ人の3兄弟を中心として1982年に結成、以降独自のレパートリーを開拓、幾度もグラミー賞にノミネートされるほどの実力を持っています。
ナクソス・ジャパン

Ruperto Chapi (1851-1907) was primarily known as a composer of zarzuelas, but he also wrote orchestral music and four string quartets, among the few examples of Spanish chamber music from between the Classical and neoclassic periods. They date from the last years of his life and are very rarely heard. The Brodsky Quartet recorded a couple of them in the early part of his century, but this release, the second of a pair covering the whole cycle by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, is most welcome and may well help propel Chapis quartets back into the repertory. They do not really have the nationalist quality that was just starting to brew in Spain, but they are characteristically Spanish in a different way: Chapi draws on his experience as a zarzuela composer. His textures are filled with quasi-orchestral ostinatos, above which are some really great melodies interspersed with dramatic episodes. None of this is to say that the pieces are like operatic parodies; these elements are quite artfully woven together, and the pieces are entirely original. Grieg would be the nearest comparison, and the quartets are quite substantial; listen to the symphonic, 16-minute finale of the String Quartet No. 4 in B minor. The performances by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano are full-blooded and altogether superb, and this group retained from its long U.S. tenure a connection with the audiophile Sono Luminus label that serves it very well here. This is a recording that may well remake the string quartet repertory.