Pianophilia

Finally, here's another fascinatingly curious piece from the far eastern frontiers of the Russian/Soviet territory. This piece brings out some intense-looking technical and sonic demands as well as lots of tricky rhythms. This composer's piano sonata was a recent addition on the Russian/Soviet thread:

Yuri IRDYNEEV (Buryatia)
Elegiac Stanzas (9), for string quartet

from the internet:

Nikolai Il'ich Aladov

Born, 1890, in St. Petersburg. Soviet Byelorussian composer and instructor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1944. Died 1972.

In 1910, Aladov passed the examinations of the St. Petersburg Conservatory course in composition without having attended lectures. He has been living in Minsk since 1923. He was one of the organizers of the Byelorussian Music Technicum (1924) and of the Byelorussian Conservatory (1932; manager from 1944 to 1948). He was the author of the first Byelorussian chamber music (piano quintet, 1925, and others) and musical comedy (Taras on Parnassus, 1927). Among his other works are the opera Andrei Kostenia (composed in 1947), five cantatas, and ten symphonies. His opus numbers list around 150 total pieces.

Nikolai Il'ich ALADOV (Belarus)
String Quartet no. 1, 'On Byelorussian folk themes', op. 34 (2e, 1969, original from 1934) EDIT: tidied up a few things and reposted this file (10-01-2017)

Here's a more familiar name, though these are not originally for quartet. The score indicates that these were 'arranged by V. Ekimovsky.'

Sergei Sergeyevich PROKOFIEV
Pieces (2), for string quartet (arr. V. Ekimovsky); 1. Scherzo, 2. Fugue

caostotale wrote:Here's a more familiar name, though these are not originally for quartet. The score indicates that these were 'arranged by V. Ekimovsky.'

Sergei Sergeyevich PROKOFIEV
Pieces (2), for string quartet (arr. V. Ekimovsky); 1. Scherzo, 2. Fugue

Prokofiev - Pieces (2), for string quartet.pdf

The two pieces here are from Prokofiev's Juvenile piano pieces only published long after his death. The Scherzo is dated 1908, the Fugue undated according to the Sikorski 1977 edition.

Many thanks caostotale for your incredibly valuable contributions. Much appreciated.

Thanks for that information, Rob. I wasn't sure where they were from.

The first of four quartets from one of the more prolific students of Myaskovsky:

Nikolai Ivanovich PEIKO
String Quartet no. 1 (1962)

Another Russian work... Alfor posted this composer's first piano sonata a while ago.

Boris Ivanovich ARKHIMANDRITOV
String Quartet (1977)

Peiko's second:

Nikolai Ivanovich PEIKO
String Quartet no. 2 (1965)

Though the biography that Jim Faston posted on the concertos thread specified three quartets by this composer (there quoted as '№ 1 (1936), № 2 (1950), № 3 (1958)'), this is the only quartet of his in print (or at least remotely available), and it bears a much later date than all of those. Like the piano works, it appears to be considerably complex:

Grigori Solomonovich ZINGER
String Quartet (1974)

Ekaterina Vadimovna KOZHEVNIKOVA
Pieces (3) 'in the Past Tense', for string quartet (1977)