A subtle alchemy and a powerful performance.

The association of Robert Craft with The Rake’s Progress spans the 45 years between this recording and his first meeting with Stravinsky in 1948 on the same day that W.H. Auden delivered the completed libretto to the composer. Craft subsequently became involved in what he describes as “the first step” in the composition of the opera, especially in helping Stravinsky master the pronunciation, vocabulary and rhythms of the English text. This involvement is described in an extract from Robert Craft’s memoirs in the booklet. Craft’s recordings of Stravinsky and others, in this case originally on the MusicMasters label, have seen a recent revival from Naxos with their ‘Robert Craft Collection’, and very excellent they are too.

With the label’s bargain pricing position, it seems fairest to compare like with more-or-less like in that department. My main reference has been Stravinsky’s own 1964 recording, now hiding discreetly as discs 16 and 17 in Sony’s bargain 22 CD box Works of Igor Stravinsky . This set is a must-have for any Stravinsky collector, but the recording in this set is not to be confused with the mono 1953 Metropolitan Opera recording, now available on Naxos Historical.

As you would expect, the more recent Craft recording wins in terms of sound quality, but aside from the usual leathery-sounding oboes and some tape hiss Stravinsky’s recording still comes up sounding pretty good. The same goes for the orchestral playing, with Craft more slick, and often more adventurous and energetic in terms of tempi. Stravinsky comes in at just under 141 minutes for the whole opera to Craft’s 128. If I have a minor criticism of both, it is the level at which the harpsichord is set, especially in the Craft recording. Even listening on best-possible hi-fi, the level is arguably too low to hear much of what is being played, and in the recitatives and important card game scene it is easily covered by the voices. This is a tricky aspect of such a recording and may be a fairly accurate representation of what you would hear in a live performance, but it is a shame that detail and harmonic content is missed in some of these recitatives, and I found my ears straining somewhat. By the way, Stravinsky’s recording has some useful riffle sound effects which help the ‘cards’ imagery in that long recitative Duet scene with Tom and Shadow which are absent with Craft. The timps are also a bit boomy in the Naxos recording, such as at the end of Act 3 scene 1, but this is another minor caveat.

While we are dealing with negatives, there is an aspect of the singing which bothered me just a little throughout. Jayne West is a star as Anne Trulove, and I have no complaints about her gorgeously innocent performance. Her gently simple final Lullaby is guaranteed to raise a tear. I am also greatly in admiration of just about everyone else, but for me the principal male characters Tom Rakewell and Nick Shadow, and Father Trulove for that matter, lack vocal variety and therefore remain rather two-dimensional as characters. Tom and Nick both have a hard-edged projection to their voices which softens little, even when the pair of them are supposedly in the hushed atmosphere of the dark and mysterious graveyard. John Cheek as Nick Shadow gives pretty much 110 % of his rich and powerful bass at all times, and comes across as more of an irresistible force than menacing presence. To be fair, Jon Garrison does give us some admirable restraint once he has been struck mad by Nick, and in any case this whole subject might in fact be less of a problem that you might imagine. I don’t wish to put anyone off with these comments - we’re talking bargain purchase territory after all. It is in the nature of Stravinsky’s vocal writing that there is almost always a certain amount of ‘distance’ between what might be expected to develop as a fully rounded theatrical character and the intentional neo-classical or even neo-baroque purity of the music. The Rake’s Progress is a wonderful score, ranging from Broadway musical corn very much to the heights of human expressiveness. There is always more than enough going on to keep us from worrying if this or that line might have been given marginally more colour or inflection. What I really do like about all of the solo vocalists is how clearly they articulate the all-important text, and while there is no libretto in the booklet for this release, you shouldn’t really need it.

With an American cast, you might also wonder if the accents of the singers might intrude to scandalise European sensibilities. This is not often the case, though there are one or two ‘The Waltons’ moments, such as when Trulove calls Anne, Anne! at the end of the Quietly, night aria, Act 1 Scene 3. The choir does very well and are stylishly punchy, but the satellite characters do leap out somewhat, and this is a mixed blessing on occasion. Shirley Love is very wobbly as Mother Goose, though this could easily be intentional. Wendy White begins imperious and perfectly and appropriately unsympathetic as the spoiled Baba the Turk, but mellows nicely for the You love him, seek to set him right scene. I was also glad to hear the smashing of crockery in her tiff with Tom in Act 2 is every bit as juicy as in Stravinsky’s 1964 version. Melvin Lowery’s Sellem is an energetic NYC auctioneer. The brief Keeper’s solo is alas unmemorable, but the part was never likely to steal the show.

There are numerous recordings of The Rake’s Progress around these days, and I still have an affection for the Decca recording with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Ricardo Chailly, though Cathryn Pope’s Anne Trulove leaves a bit of a beige gap in an otherwise strong team of soloists. If it’s the best of the best of modern recording you are looking for at any price, then the critics seem fairly universal in praise of Kent Nagano’s 1995 Lyons Opera recording on Erato, though I don’t have this to hand for comparison. As far as the Sony Box/Naxos competition goes you can easily accommodate both - Stravinsky having a bit more unruly bite and grit, Craft winning in terms of refinement but at the same time losing out in terms of pithy character. What Craft does manage is to bring out the sheer wit in several little moments of Stravinsky’s score - more so than the composer himself did. I laughed out loud in a few places which might not have been intentional, but you simply must find fun in all those corners and cadences - vocal and tonal - which Stravinsky throws in to disarm us and allow us up for air in this most human and intense of dramas.

The Rake’s Progress holds a fascination for us in the 21st century, in the first place as a ‘classic’ and iconic work from one of the last century’s greatest composers, but also as one in possession of the magical tensions one of music’s turning points. In the late 1940s and early 1950s there was a wind of change, many of the protagonists of which both held Stravinsky as a respected statesman of contemporary music making, but who also already knew his style and idiom, and were more than prepared to see the new opera as rather old hat. The opera stands at the cusp of this transition in Stravinsky’s work, between the development or recycling of old formulae, and the decision whether or not to break new ground in order to compete with the new generation of composers. In the end, the intangible alchemy which was Stravinsky’s gift for creating remarkable music, combined in The Rake’s Progress with a penetrating insight into human nature and frailty, created a masterpiece which transcended and survived all of those internal and external musical revolutions. That we have such a direct link to Stravinsky’s living thoughts and intentions in Robert Craft and such a powerful performance makes this recording - even with its imperfections - as much a ‘must have’ as the composer’s own.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Click here for all of Robert Craft's recordings on Naxos

Considered the most 'Russian'of Stravinsky' major works, the origin of the Firebird lies in the impresario Sergey Dyagilev' cost-cutting decision to concentrate on ballet, rather than opera.

Robert Craft's authority as a Stravinsky conductor is unquestionable, and it's good to see his Koch recordings reappearing with important individual items from his earlier Musicmasters series. All were very well engineered and are certainly worth hearing. Between the two series I don't know if he has done everything, but he's pretty close, and there are some duplications. For example, this recording of Symphony of Psalms comes from the Koch sessions. It is very beautifully played, though not quite ideally sung by a chorus that sounds a bit small for the work (as I noted on its original issue). Craft's previous recording was a bit quicker overall, particularly in the last movement, but this one is actually closer to the tempos in Stravinsky's own stereo version.


And this, in a nutshell, is the point: when it comes to accuracy of execution instrumentally, Craft is unassailable. Vocally, it's more a question of taste and opportunity. For example, in the Cantata nobody beats tenor Jan Kobow's performance on Harmonia Mundi, a disc that also contains arguably the best-sung version of the Mass. Ancerl also offers superb interpretations of these two works, plus Symphony of Psalms, all on Supraphon. In the final analysis, it's nice to have such a wealth of choice, particularly in works once thought to be forbidding, such as the Cantata. The Three Russian Sacred Choruses are very minor pieces, as is Babel, Stravinsky's contribution to Nathaniel Shilkret's 1943 Genesis Suite (available on EMI). Craft is incorrect, by the way, in claiming in his notes that Babel was the suite's concluding section: it was The Covenant, by Ernest Toch. [11/3/2006]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

No one plays Stravinsky's neo-classical works better than Robert Craft. In the Symphony in C he captures the flow of the piece perfectly, understanding that the music's wistful innocence and rhythmic freshness depends far more on precision of execution than on interpretive point-making. The Symphony in Three Movements packs a nice, hefty punch in its outer movements, and the important harp part is very well balanced in the central Andante.

Neither Dumbarton Oaks nor the Octet strikes me as top-notch Stravinsky, though judging from his notes Craft would disagree. In any case, these are wholly winning performances, totally free of artifice. Dumbarton Oaks in particular does not sound like bad Bach, but comes across as energetic and vital, the rhythmic drive of its outer movements never turning mechanical. The fine sonics remain remarkably consistent despite the various recording locations and dates. Highly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Stravinsky has been compared to his near contemporary Picasso, the painter who provided d�cor for Pulcinella and who through a long career was to show mastery of a number of contrasting styles. Stravinsky's earlier music was essentially Russian in inspiration, followed by a style of composition derived largely from the eighteenth century, interspersed with musical excursions in other directions. His so-called neo-classicism coincided with the beginning of a career that was now international. The initial enthusiasm for the Russian revolution of 1917 that had led even Dyagilev to replace crown and scepter in The Firebird with a red flag, was soon succeeded by distaste for the new r�gime and the decision not to return to Russia. Stravinsky wrote his Danses concertantes in Hollywood in 1941 and early 1942, in response to a commission from the Wemer Janssens Orchestra, which gave the first performance in Los Angeles on 8th February under the direction of the composer. Although originally intended for concert use, the Danses concertantes were planned in balletic sequence, with an introductory and concluding march to bring the dancers on and off the stage and the necessary variety, not only in the Pas d' action and Pas de deux but also in the theme and variations, three of the latter based on an ascending semitone step. In 1944 the dances were choreographed by Balanchine for the Ballet russe of Monte Carlo. The style of writing reflects that of the earlier ballet Jeu de cartes.

Includes work(s) for piano by Igor Stravinsky, ranging from modernist takes on "light" dance genres such as ragtime, polka, and tango to the youthful late Romanticism of the Sonata in F-sharp. Soloist: Victor Sangiorgio, an in-demand soloist and one of Australia's leading luminaries of the piano.

REVIEW:

Victor Sangiorgio is an Italian-born pianist who grew up in the Australian city of Perth...He has since lived and worked at various times in the U.S. and England: there, in 1991, he set down this program of Stravinsky’s solo piano music. The disc originally appeared on the Collins Classics label in 1993, and I have been enjoying it ever since. It is probably the best overview of this repertoire you can find at the moment, certainly at Naxos’s low price.

Sangiorgio plays with a freedom that belies the unpianistic complexities of some of these pieces, notably the tricky cross rhythms in the second of the Four Etudes of 1908. Although Stravinsky himself was a pianist, and wrote the majority of these works for himself to play, he obviously had a personal and quirky keyboard technique.

Most of Stravinsky’s solo piano output dates from early in his career. The F♯-Minor Sonata of 1903–04 is a student work, written or at least completed under the guidance of the composer’s mentor Rimsky-Korsakov (at the latter’s summer residence in Lzy). It is a fully fledged, late-Romantic, four-movement work, echoing Tchaikovsky and formally harkening back to Beethoven. The young Stravinsky was manifestly uncomfortable with the heroics demanded by the first and last movements; it shows us a glimpse of his later self only in the middle movements: the Scherzo and Andante. The former is cheeky, while the latter hints at the Russian melancholy that comes to the fore in The Firebird and often colors parts of the master’s later works. Sangiorgio doesn’t belabor the piece...but makes the best of it through clarity and lightness.

Those attributes pay dividends in the two most substantial works on the disc: the Sonata of 1924 and the Serenade of 1925. These opuses, written around the same time as the Concerto for Piano and Winds and the Capriccio, show Stravinsky bringing to Classical period structures his own astringent harmonies and unevenly stressed rhythms. Stravinsky’s music from this era can sound dry, but Sangiorgio finds a playfulness; a tongue-in-cheek quality that somehow expresses the composer’s sly enjoyment of his own handiwork.

...as an overall recommendation this Naxos reissue is the [recording of this repertoire] to go for. Sound is appropriately clean, close, and warm.

-- MusicWeb International

Robert Craft leads a thrilling performance of Oedipus Rex--incisive, swift, and as mercilessly inevitable as fate itself. From the opening bars, where those spine-chilling runs in the trumpet penetrate the orchestral tutti like screams of horror, you can tell that Craft has every detail of this work (his second recording) well in hand, and so for that matter does the Philharmonia. Anyone who believes that Craft is a dull conductor should listen to this urgent account--from the great choruses (first announcing Jocasta's entrance, with particularly clear timpani and piano ostinatos, and later her death), to the Verdian energy he brings to the Oedipus/Jocasta duet in Act 2. It would have been even better if Craft had followed Stravinsky's lead in his own early-1960s recording: repeat the "Gloria" chorus with the opening Act 2 narration in the middle. It's not a major point, and strictly speaking it's not what's in the score; but it's such marvelous music, and hearing it twice simply doubles the pleasure.


As for the singers, they do well--for the most part. After some initial unsteadiness Martyn Hill settles down to close Act 1 most affectingly, and his singing in Act 2 is very good. Jennifer Lane's Jocasta sounds younger than, say, Jessye Norman's, and her lighter touch gets around the notes better than many a bigger, heavier voice. As Creon, David Wilson-Johnson offers disappointingly approximate pitch in his big Act 1 aria, but he does much better in the slower-moving proclamations of the Messenger. The smaller roles come off without any problems, and the Simon Joly Male Chorus sings more confidently than it did in Craft's Symphony of Psalms. Speaker Edward Fox sounds like a bored Oxford don, but at least he admirably refrains from the annoying histrionics that some bring to the part (particularly in its French-language version). And Craft naturally makes sure that as Stravinsky wanted, Fox pronounces the protagonist's name "Eedipus" as opposed to the chorus' "Oydipus".


Craft's Les Noces--he would with good reason prefer the Russian title "Svadebka"--is simply spectacular. Not only does it feature both superb playing by the four pianos and percussion and marvelous singing by soprano Alison Wells and Martyn Hill, but it's clear that Craft has invested a great deal of care and attention in getting clear articulation of the Russian text. This is critical because, as Craft explains in his notes, the music flows naturally from the speech-rhythms of the words. So many performances of this marvelous piece sound like garbled chanting in an unrecognizable tongue. Craft ensures that for once we really hear the Russian, and just as significantly he balances his forces perfectly so that singers and instrumentalists play off each other with an astonishing degree of rhythmic tension. The resulting explosion of color and energy (you can hear this at any point, but the transition from the third to the fourth scene offers an excellent example) has few if any equals in other performances--including Craft's earlier one on Music Masters. Ideally clear and focused sound completes this very desirable package, given new life thanks to Naxos (these performances previously appeared, differently coupled, on Koch). [2/5/2005]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Stravinsky composed his music at the keyboard, often struggling to play his own complex rhythms. It is not surprising therefore that many of his symphonic works also exist in his own piano versions, such as the four hand transcription of his ballet, The Rite of Spring. It is a pianistic tour de force, the players often having to interweave fingers, hands and arms to meet the composers tremendous demands of virtuosity. The work has for many years formed part of the standard repertoire of Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill. They have played it throughout England to astonished audiences, and have broadcast this (and the other two works on this disc) on BBC Radio 3. The performance is staggeringly brilliant, superbly recorded in St Silas Church, London on a wonderful Bosendorfer Imperial Grand. The duo are now recording exclusively for Naxos, Peter Hill will be recording the complete music by Stravinsky for two hands at sessions this summer.

I have no criticism whatsoever about the excellence of these performances. No one plays neo-classical and late Stravinsky as well as Robert Craft, and whether in his energetic and witty account of Jeu de cartes, or the nicely "sec" articulation he uses to characterize the Danses and Scènes, these performances are as fine as any available, and they are very well recorded. Mark Wait also is a fine piano soloist in the Capriccio, giving a swift and uncommonly high-spirited rendition. The Variations belongs among Stravinsky's most uncompromisingly arid compositions. Craft delivers the piece with his usual clarity and focus, but like some Webern, the fact that you can listen to this brief work multiple times to try to "get it" doesn't mean that you will want to or that it's time well spent. Indeed my only qualm about this disc, one that prevents my giving it the highest rating, is that if you enjoy neo-classical Stravinsky you likely won't want the Variations. Still, it's only a bit more than five minutes of music and you can always ignore it. If the coupling suits, then don't hesitate.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

STRAVINSKY L’histoire du soldat: Suite. 1 Renard. 2, 3 Pastorale. 3 3 Pieces for Clarinet. 4 Pour Picasso. 4 Pribaoutki. 5 Berceuses du chat. 5 2 Balmont Songs. 6 3 Japanese Lyrics. 6 Scherzo à la russe. 7 Song of the Volga Boatmen 8 • Robert Craft, cond; Instrumental Ens; 1–3 John Aler, Steven Paul Spears (tn); 2 David Evitts (bar); 2 Wilbur Pauley (bs); 2 Charles Neidich (cl); 4 Catherine Ciesinski (mez); 5 Susan Narucki (sop); 6 O of St. Luke’s; 5, 7 Philharmonia O 8 • NAXOS 8.557505 (69:20 & , lacking Renard )


As the folks at Naxos continue to reissue Robert Craft’s valuable Stravinsky recordings, they are mixing together sessions from various years and sources into programs that differ from their initial releases. This potpourri, for example, reinstates to the catalog the composer’s 1924 quintet arrangement of the Pastorale, the solo clarinet pieces (including the sliver of melody he spontaneously dedicated to Picasso), and his orchestral version of the Song of the Volga Boatmen , all taken from a Koch International release, along with several of the small songs, the original orchestration (for the Paul Whiteman jazz band) of the Scherzo à la russe , and the septet arrangement of the L’histoire du soldat Suite, first issued on MusicMasters. The odd man out here is the 1916 burlesque Renard , in a 2005 performance new to disc.


Suffice to say that the more modest pieces are presented in a lovely light, especially the delicate Japanese songs, and Charles Neidich’s account of the clarinet miniatures. Nevertheless, one’s decision to invest in this release, even at a budget price, will likely depend upon the larger works, the Suite and Renard . Due to current discographical absurdities, Stravinsky’s own recording of the L’histoire du Soldat Suite is buried in expensive, multidisc boxes, which makes this impressive version by his one-time alter ego all the more valuable. As might be expected, Craft shares the composer’s predilection for crisp, buoyant rhythms, and quick tempos, so the spirit and satire is intact.


This new Renard is—literally—something else, however. The music is the same, of course, and though Stravinsky shaves two minutes off of Craft’s time in his own Columbia performance, Craft obtains much the same biting tone and sharp, taut phrasing. The difference is in the text. Now, Stravinsky was acutely aware of the rhythmic and tonal complexities of setting words to music, and the different effects that various languages suggest; nevertheless he felt it extremely important that the local audience for each performance of Renard be able to understand the words being sung. To that end, although the work was originally composed with his own Russian libretto (based on folk tales by Alexander Afanasiev), he collaborated with the Swiss poet C. F. Ramuz on a French translation, and personally provided an English language version for a Los Angeles concert in 1953—which, one assumes, was used in his 1962 Columbia recording. In his program annotation for this release, Craft writes that “The text of the present recording is based on this but is emended in several places by Fred Sherry, Philip Traugott, and the present writer.”


My dictionary says that to emend means “to free from defects” or “to correct.” Craft’s implication seems to be that he and the others made some minor changes intended to more accurately present Stravinsky’s own words and intention, but I wonder if that is indeed the case. Entire sections are radically altered or replaced—among them, all of the names of the Cock’s family are changed, and one passage where the Cock compares himself to Jesus is omitted completely. Since every word change effects a musical consideration, one wonders what Stravinsky would have thought of this after-the-fact “emendation.” I can’t say it does any major harm, but it is curious—and unexplained. Also curious is the fact that Ernest Ansermet, in his 1964 Decca recording, used yet another vastly different “English text” (translated from Stravinsky’s French version? surely the 1917 copyright cited refers to this) by Rollo H. Myers, which has apparently continued to be used on occasion—see John Rockwell’s review in the New York Times , March 20, 1983. Has anyone published an essay that clarifies Renard ’s textual history? (By the way, song texts are included in the program booklet, but the libretto to Renard is not.) None of which should deter any fan of Stravinsky’s music from enjoying this fine disc.


FANFARE: Art Lange

Robert Craft always conducts splendid late Stravinsky, or selects the best players to do the chamber works full justice, and so it proves here. Granted, the program is a bit of a mish-mash, but that’s only to be expected given the composer and the length of each work. In the Duo, Frautschi and Denk play with just the right crispness and clarity, and you’ll search in vain for a better version of Abraham and Isaac (not that there are all that many). In short, if you’ve been collecting this series, which Naxos hopefully will box up complete someday, then you’ll want to add this disc to your library as well.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Another disc of tremendous quality from the very talented Enso Quartet. Their Naxos disc of the Ginastera quartets was one of my 'discs of the year' in 2009. With very different aesthetic and musical demands these are performances of equal stature.

It is a neat premise for a collection - take three eminent composers famous for their operatic compositions and bring together their only works in the quartet medium. All of the works here have been recorded before and often although the preferred coupling usually involves other Italian composers instead of Strauss. Apart from the national links there is some sense in that choice as the Strauss quartet, for all its easy charm, is very much an apprentice work. The inescapable impression is that Strauss was using the quartet form as a way to flex his compositional muscles. The part-writing is immaculate, the harmony and handling of form is never less than tasteful but I suspect no-one listening innocently would ever guess that Strauss was the composer - the Op. 2 belies just how early it is - and the first performance was given when the composer was just 17. All that having been said, this has to be the most elegant and simply beautiful performance I have heard of this work. Much of the technical demand lies in the first violin part and here Maureen Nelson is quite superb: effortlessly lyrical and fluent. Curiously for a composer who would make his name with opulently chromatic works straining the bounds of tonality this does not look to Wagner let alone Brahms for its models but back to the earlier German Romantics especially Mendelssohn and even Haydn. If Mendelssohn is the benevolent influence on the opening allegro then Haydn - right down to the scherzo and trio format - oversees both the following scherzo and the closing allegro moderato.

Throughout, the poise of the playing, the refinement of the voicing of the parts and the subtle interplay of the musicians is a mini master-class in the art of quartet performance. When I last reviewed the Strauss quartet as part of a set of his complete chamber music I was rather dismissive of the work damning it as not much more than talented pastiche. The performance there from the Sinnhoffer Quartett is perfectly adequate but politely bland when set alongside this new recording. The Enso Quartet's approach might be termed dynamic elegance - alert, brimming with controlled energy yet perfectly poised. The work is no masterpiece and never will be but this performance makes the best possible case.

Placed rather neatly at the centre of the disc is Puccini's Crisantemi. Written as an elegy for Amedeo of Savoy in 1890, again it is an early work and pre-dates all of the operas for which he was famous. Yet, where the Strauss never rises above the level of youthful exercise, this contains much that is the essence of the composer yet to come. Quite literally in the sense that Puccini, realising he had written a good tune, recycled it almost immediately in his first operatic 'hit' Manon Lescaut. I have heard other performances that strive for a bigger more emotional impact but I like very much the way the Enso's hold back, the emotion expressed in half-lights and muted grief; poised was the word that sprang to mind again. Puccini's only other effort for quartet was a group of three minuets written when he was 26. The second minuet is again extensively mined for themes in Act I of Manon Lescaut where its easy grace is used to good effect in the salon scene. These are by definition three slight works in their original quartet form but they succeed by not trying to be anything else. No surprise by now that the Enso Quartet have the measure of these works exactly. Listen to the rubato Nelson applies to the repeat of the opening phrase [0:15 - track 7] - pulling back the tempo before pushing on with light spiccato. This is understated quality playing of the highest order. The most beautiful performances of these unpretentious works I have heard.

The Verdi quartet always comes as something of a surprise. As Keith Anderson's liner says, quite why Verdi, at sixty and at the height of his operatic powers decided to produce a string quartet is something of a mystery. The first two performances were private ones so clearly this was initially at least a personal rather than public project. No surprise that this is by some distance the most individual and accomplished composition on the disc. In this piece of absolute music Verdi seems to be taking technical delight in the handling of the musical material for its own sake rather than being beholden to any extra-musical dramatic narrative. So the presence of many imitative, contrapuntal and fugal passages throughout comes as no shock. All of these allow the Enso Quartet to demonstrate yet again their remarkable unanimity in performance both technical and musical. When Verdi does sound more Verdian - as in the opening of the second movement Andantino - the players capture the canzona spirit of the music, Richard Belcher's resonant bass pizzicati providing a perfect foundation for Nelson's playfully spontaneous 'song'. Indeed playfully spontaneous is a good way of characterising the entire performance from all the players. In the best sense of the phrase there is an old-fashioned stylishness to the quartet's approach which allied to their superb technical address makes for some of the most enjoyable quartet playing I know. I was equally as impressed recently by the Escher Quartet and their Zemlinsky discs for Naxos - this is up there at that standard. Listen to the bite and superb ensemble playing of the tarantella-like third movement Prestissimo [tr. 11]. In the trio section the cello is given a tenor's song that is played here by Richard Belcher with exactly the right kind of vocal freedom; my only sorrow is that this section is so short. The closing Scherzo Fuga is a compositional tour-de-force. Quite deliberately, I am sure, Verdi employs a whole series of contrapuntal tricks just to prove to any doubters that he can write fugues with inversions and counter-subjects combined with the best of them. In this performance the Enso bring the work and indeed the disc to a rousingly impressive end.

Unlike say, the Bruckner String Quintet, this Verdi quartet lies outside the main body of its composer's works. As such, it will always be of secondary interest. Allowing for that, this recording makes as impressive a case for it in its own right as can be imagined. All the music on this disc is easy on the ear and instantly appealing especially when heard in performances as uniformly excellent as this - string ensemble playing of this calibre is incredibly hard to achieve.

Worth mentioning the recording at this point. The Toronto church used gives a beautifully warm acoustic and the production/engineering pairing of Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver are such an experienced team now that the understated excellence of the disc technically should come as no surprise. Some might feel the recording brings the players quite close, and there is a certain amount of audible breathing. My sense is that this does not compromise the tonal allure of the quartet or cramp their dynamic range which is impressively wide throughout. The standard of string quartet playing has never been higher but even in such a crowded field it strikes me that the Enso Quartet are carving out a reputation for themselves as being amongst the very finest currently performing. From now on I will make a point of seeking out any music they perform and record - their name is rapidly becoming synonymous with excellence.

– Nick Barnard, MusicWeb International

Recording information: Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, USA (03/31/2008-04/01/2008).

STRAUSS, R.: Heldenleben (Ein) / Macbeth