RUPERTO CHAPÍ (1851-1909): String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2.

Description: Author of one symphony (offered here in December 2008 - 12K005), Chapí is famous for his zarzuelas but also for being a member of the first generation of Spanish composers to write string quartets (four of them, along with Corrado del Campo's fourteen [!] and Turina's solo example). These two are from 1903 and 1904 and positively drip with authentic Iberian musical elements: habanera, zortziko, pasodoble, jota and, throughout the Second, the Phrygian tetrachord behind much Spanish folk music but going further back to the Moors. The warmth of the Spanish sun is there throughout along with an Iberian sense of time, measured, unrushed (each quartet is around 36 minutes long) and the Second also has a sardonic personality which slightly darkens the good feelings. Really memorable! Quarteto Latinoamericano.