Search results: Search results
289 results
Products
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
SaleEberl: Rediscovered - 3 String quartets, Op.13 / casalQuartett
Solo Musica · Apr 2022CD$20.99$10.49 -
-
-
-
-
-
Haydn: The Amadeus Quartet Recordings, Vol. 6 (Berlin, 1950-1969)
Audite Musikproduktion · Apr 2017CD$30.99 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Brahms: The String Quintets & Sextets / Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics · Jan 2014CD$29.99 -
-
-
-
-
Beethoven: The Early String Quartets / Cypress String Quartet
Avie Records
CD
$20.99
May 06, 2016
The Cypress String Quartet completes their cycle of the genre’s greatest oeuvre with a two-album set of Beethoven’s six ground-breaking quartets, Op. 18, alongside a reissue of their previously self-released recording of the late quartets. For the past several seasons, the Cypresses have immersed themselves in performing Beethoven on tours throughout the United States and Europe as well as recording all 16 works plus the “Grande Fugue” (Große Fuge). The completion of their Beethoven cycle is a fitting celebration of the Bay Area-based ensemble’s 20th anniversary as well as their valedictory season.
The Kernis Project: Beethoven / Jasper String Quartet
Sono Luminus
SACD with CD
$18.99
Sep 27, 2011
Sono Luminus is proud to introduce a stunning new talent to the label, The Jasper String Quartet, with their debut album The Kernis Project: Beethoven. For this debut recording, they chose two pieces closest to their collective heart. Aaron Jay Kernis took quartet writing to the next level when writing his Pulitzer Prize winning Quartet No. 2 “musica instrumentalis”. The first two movements take inspiration from Baroque and Renaissance dance forms and the last movement is directly influenced by the joyous fugue of Beethoven’s Op. 59 No. 3. With his last “Razumovsky” Quartet, Beethoven began his transformation into the most revered quartet composer of all time. The two pieces share a profound depth of expression and expansion of the possibilities of the quartet genre, making them a perfect pair for this project.
Goldmark: String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 8 & String Qui
Gramola Records
CD
$20.99
Jun 09, 2015
Carl Goldmark, Jewish composer of Hungaro-Austrian descent, practically never in his youth received comprehensive musical training, which may be why he only at the age of 30, around the year 1860, gained public attention as a composer with his string quartet Op. 8. Foregone has a period of intense self-study of counterpoint and works by Bach and Beethoven. Two years later, Goldmarks string quintet Op. 9 premiered, though being thought of as too bold for the taste of the audience, hence it's performance was refused by Ferdinand David, concert master of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, after having made some unpleasant experiences with the string sextet by Brahms. The Haydn Quartet, for more than 20 years "quartet in residence" in Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, is being supported by outstanding cellist and professor Rudolph Leopold.
Holmboe: String Quartets, Vol. 1 / Nightingale String Quartet
Dacapo Classical
CD
$17.99
Jan 08, 2021
After award-winning Langgaard recordings, the Nightingale String Quartet turns to one of the great unsung quartet cycles of the last century, that of Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996). Volume 1 in this new cycle takes in the composer’s first published quartet, his momentum-fueled Quartet No. 3 and his taut Quartet No. 15 with its pathos-imbued funeral march. These are fresh new performances that support the idea that the deeper you dig into Holmboe’s music, the more you find. Nightingale String Quartet is based in Copenhagen and is made up of Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard, violins, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen, viola, and Louisa Schwab, cello. All the members of Nightingale String Quartet studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where Professor Tim Frederiksen has been their faithful mentor ever since the Quartet was founded in 2007.
-----
REVIEW:
Vagn Holmboe’s 20 numbered string quartets constitute one of the 20th century’s most substantial and rewarding bodies of work in the genre. Collectors have come to know these compositions largely through the Kontra Quartet’s complete recorded cycle on Dacapo. The label now launches a new Holmboe project with the young Nightingale Quartet, whose Rued Langgaard quartet cycle set reference standards. In every way they match the Kontra’s technical polish, ensemble discipline, and textual integrity. Yet their interpretations sometimes differ.
For example, the Nightingale’s leaner spelling out of the gorgeously dense chords in the third-movement introduction of the First quartet contrasts to the Kontra’s massive and fuller-bodied impact. On the other hand, the second movement’s slithery Presto passages gain from the Nightingale’s faster tempo and lighter articulation.
Although the Third quartet’s five-movement “arch” form (slow-fast-moderate-fast-slow) owes an obvious debt to Bartók’s own Third quartet, Holmboe’s somewhat sunnier harmonic language goes its own way. It’s a toss-up between the Kontra’s intensely expansive, dynamically varied opening Lento and the Nightingale’s cooler temperament, brisker pace, and precisely calibrated attacks and releases. Some listeners may prefer the Nightingale’s supple scampering in the Allegro assai to the Kontra’s slightly heavier reading, yet the latter’s broader tempo allows the occasional “droning” bass lines to resonate more effectively.
My colleague David Hurwitz describes Holmboe’s late quartets as more complex but also more personal and concentrated, and that’s especially true of his three-movement No. 15. The Kontra’s slower unfolding of the fourth-movement introduction conveys a sense of mystery and otherworldliness that I feel digs deeper than the Nightingale’s drier reserve. But once the Allegro kicks in, the Nightingale’s gaunter, crisper approach better enlivens Holmboe’s knotty contrapuntal writing.
If this first volume is any indication, the Nightingale Quartet Holmboe cycle will complement rather than supersede the Kontra Quartet, and that’s all to our advantage. And to Holmboe’s advantage, of course!
– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)
-----
REVIEW:
Vagn Holmboe’s 20 numbered string quartets constitute one of the 20th century’s most substantial and rewarding bodies of work in the genre. Collectors have come to know these compositions largely through the Kontra Quartet’s complete recorded cycle on Dacapo. The label now launches a new Holmboe project with the young Nightingale Quartet, whose Rued Langgaard quartet cycle set reference standards. In every way they match the Kontra’s technical polish, ensemble discipline, and textual integrity. Yet their interpretations sometimes differ.
For example, the Nightingale’s leaner spelling out of the gorgeously dense chords in the third-movement introduction of the First quartet contrasts to the Kontra’s massive and fuller-bodied impact. On the other hand, the second movement’s slithery Presto passages gain from the Nightingale’s faster tempo and lighter articulation.
Although the Third quartet’s five-movement “arch” form (slow-fast-moderate-fast-slow) owes an obvious debt to Bartók’s own Third quartet, Holmboe’s somewhat sunnier harmonic language goes its own way. It’s a toss-up between the Kontra’s intensely expansive, dynamically varied opening Lento and the Nightingale’s cooler temperament, brisker pace, and precisely calibrated attacks and releases. Some listeners may prefer the Nightingale’s supple scampering in the Allegro assai to the Kontra’s slightly heavier reading, yet the latter’s broader tempo allows the occasional “droning” bass lines to resonate more effectively.
My colleague David Hurwitz describes Holmboe’s late quartets as more complex but also more personal and concentrated, and that’s especially true of his three-movement No. 15. The Kontra’s slower unfolding of the fourth-movement introduction conveys a sense of mystery and otherworldliness that I feel digs deeper than the Nightingale’s drier reserve. But once the Allegro kicks in, the Nightingale’s gaunter, crisper approach better enlivens Holmboe’s knotty contrapuntal writing.
If this first volume is any indication, the Nightingale Quartet Holmboe cycle will complement rather than supersede the Kontra Quartet, and that’s all to our advantage. And to Holmboe’s advantage, of course!
– ClassicsToday (Jed Distler)
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2
Audite Musikproduktion
SACD
$21.99
Nov 19, 2013
Following the successful release of Volume I in the complete edition of Beethoven String Quartets with the 'Quartetto di Cremona', audite now continues the series. The choice of works for the second volume refers to two periods during which Beethoven turned away for good from the culture of music amateurs of the late eighteenth century. The Quartets Op. 59 of 1806, commissioned by Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky, were written for Vienna's most famous professional string quartet, led by Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Beethoven's musical language is no longer balanced and well-seasoned, as that of his contemporaries, but is extreme in every respect: ruthless and with feeling, dramatically operatic and full of contrapuntal finesse. The 'Quartetto di Cremona' contrasts this work from Beethoven's mature phase with his opus 127 of 1824. It is this work in E flat major with which the already deaf Beethoven began his series of late works, received by his contemporaries with alarm, but by posterity with admiration. For a long time after the dissolution of the 'Quartetto Italiano' in the 1980s, no Italian string quartets seemed to come forward to seek international renown. The four young musicians from Genoa, however, who formed the 'Quartetto di Cremona' following their studies in the violin making town of Cremona, have revived Italian string quartet playing. Since it's foundation in 2000, the ensemble has developed into the best quartet of it's country, and also into one of the most prestigious and imaginative quartets within Europe. This status is documented by the audite recording series of the complete Beethoven String Quartets which was started one year ago - a touchstone for all string quartets in it's textual dimension, as well as in it's technical demands.
Beethoven: String Quartets, Op. 18 nos. 4-6
Coro
CD
$20.99
Jun 07, 2019
Opus 18 needs little introduction and is often revered as demonstrating Beethoven's total mastery of the Classical String Quartet. The Eybler Quartet completes it's exploration of these iconic quartets in an album that showcases radiantly Beethoven's fiendishly difficult tempi and his genius for finding contrast within a single pulse as well as highlighting the depths of his humour, wit and irony. The Eybler Quartet came together in 2004 to explore the works of the first century -and-a-half of the string quartet and plays on instruments appropriate to the period of the music it performs. The Toronto-based ensemble's live performances have consistently garnered praise as "glowing and committed", "spirited" and "lively and energizing". The Eybler Quartet harnesses a unique combination of talents and skills: razor-sharp ensemble skills, technical prowess, expertise in period instrument performance and an unquenchable passion for the repertoire. The group's five other recordings feature world premieres of Eybler's Opus 1, world premieres of Backofen quintets coupled with Mozart's clarinet quintet featuring Jane Booth, Haydn's six quartets Op. 33, the world premiere of Johann Baptist Vanhal's op. 6 on period instruments and volume one of Beethoven's Opus 18 the companion to the present album.
Quartet Integra
Yarlung Records
CD
$21.99
Nov 21, 2025
... four of the brightest young stars in classical music today. We are enjoying another golden era thanks to Quartet Integra. -Martin Beaver, First Violin, Tokyo String Quartet Producer's notes: Yarlung Records returned to Zipper Hall at Colburn School in April, 2025 to record the debut album for Quartet Integra toward the end of the quartet's 3-year residency in Los Angeles. They had just returned from acclaimed performances in Wigmore Hall in London. The quartet left again after our recording for summer concerts (and a little bit of family time) in Asia before moving to Paris and Hannover in the autumn. Quartet Integra begins a two year residency in Paris at the Centre Europeen de Musique de Chambre and will continue study with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule fur Musik, Theater, und Medien in Hannover. We will miss the Quartet badly in Los Angeles and hope they return soon. This extraordinary young ensemble, Kyoka Misawa and Rintaro Kikuno on violins, Itsuki Yamamoto on viola, and cellist Ye Un Park play Classical, Romantic, Contemporary and Renaissance music equally well. In fact, we explore all four eras in this recording. We begin with Beethoven's last published work, String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Opus 135, written in 1826. Beethoven wrote this piece at the height of his Romantic powers, but the quartet looks back with irony and nostalgia to his classical period. Next, Quartet Integra tackles Ligeti's 1968 ground-breaking Sonata No. 2, which they played for me at their audition and which won me over immediately. Kyoka, Rintaro, Itsuki and Ye Un find beauty and repose in this seat-belts-required 25-minute work full of extended techniques and mid-20th-Century sound world while communicating humor and transcendent energy. Kyoka said "When people hear the name Ligeti, many tend to associate it with contemporary music and assume it will be difficult to listen to. But in reality, that's not the case. Especially the String Quartet No. 2, which we're performing this time - it's wild and destructive, yet it holds a kind of breathtaking beauty. It feels almost like watching a movie." Mike Wechsberg, an audience member at our special live concert recording session commented heartily how "Ligeti is not the sort of music I normally like, but THIS was magnificent! Bravo Quartet Integra!" We ended the concert with Green Mountains, Now Black, a new piece by David S. Lefkowitz which he completed in the spring of 2025. Donna Morton commissioned David's piece for Yarlung Artists and Quartet Integra through Yarlung's sister organization Coretet. Donna and her group have steadfastly supported new chamber music including from composers Caroline Shaw, Diego Schissi (who won a Latin GRAMMY® nomination for Nene, which he wrote for Yarlung's Sibelius Piano Trio), Jamie Thierman, Eric Nathan and Benjamin Taylor among others. Donna serves on the boards of both Yarlung Artists and Coretet, and we relished the opportunity to collaborate again as Coretet celebrates it's 10th Anniversary and Yarlung celebrates it's 20th. Beethoven wrote his last major composition, String Quartet Op. 135, in 1826. This was his final statement in his groundbreaking series. Opus 135 premiered in 1828, performed by Ignaz Schuppanzigh and his famous ensemble, a year after Beethoven died. When the members of Quartet Integra suggested we record this work on their debut album instead of Schubert's "Rosamunda" Quartet written only two years earlier, I initially demurred. Who needs yet another superb performance of Beethoven's final masterpiece?" I complained. "Who needs yet another Rosamunda?" Quartet Integra 'cellist Ye Un Park responded within milliseconds. She had a point, and I'm glad we recorded the Beethoven instead, at least on Quartet Integra's first Yarlung album! The ensemble had just performed Beethoven's first string quartet in London's Wigmore Hall in London, as well as "Rosamunda, " and they were game to expand their horizons and capitalize on their "Beethoven High." They also wanted to utilize the superb acoustics at Colburn School while the quartet was still living in Los Angeles, and we knew Zipper Hall would do the Beethoven special justice. Our recording concludes with David S. Lefkowitz' Green Mountains, Now Black. David's piece offers quotations from Monteverdi's earliest extant opera Orfeo (one of my favorites in the operatic literature) and additional quotations from Monteverdi's final opera The Coronation of Poppea, including it's magical and ever-so recognizable love duet between Poppea and the emperor Nero at the end of the opera. Instead of merely transposing my favorite arias, choral passages and this famous duet for string quartet, David wrote a work that explores the very nature of what it means to be a string quartet. And he experiments with the genre, pushes boundaries, and incorporates his own despair witnessing the burning of much of Los Angeles in the spring of 2025. David and his wife Laurie could see flames and smoke not too far away from their home as he composed this work. Nero himself famously allowed a good chunk of downtown Rome to burn, exercising (and bragging about) his dubious leadership in the process. David layers Octavia's farewell to her beloved city with the giddy love duet between Octavia's husband, the emperor, and his mistress Poppea, to tell the story of David's own distress while writing the piece. Green Mountains, Now Black not only refer to Monteverdi himself (Green Mountain) but the fire which turned so many of our spring green mountains to char in Los Angeles. Despite David's gloom and worry during our fires, his iridescent string writing shows itself proudly and his many glorious and lyrical passages outnumber the darker ones. As musicians, the members of Quartet Integra communicate superbly with audiences and with each other as they explore the depths and details of these musical scores. With generous support from Sel, Nick and Martin at Colburn School, we worked with Quartet Integra on April 13-15, 2025 and ended our recording session with a live concert for invited guests from the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society on April 15th. You can enjoy videos of this concert on YouTube's YarlungChannel. Fellow recording engineer and equipment designer Arian Jansen and I used SonoruS Holographic Imaging technology in the analog domain to refine the stereo image, Yarlung's SonoruS ATR12 to record Agfa-formula 468 analog tape, the Merging Technologies HAPI to record 256fs DSD in stereo and surround sound and the SonoruS ADC to record PCM. We used our friend Ted Ancona's AKG C24 microphone previously owned by Frank Sinatra, and Yarlung Audio vacuum tube microphone amplification designed and built by Elliot Midwood. In closing, it was Donna Morton and Martin Beaver who suggested Yarlung support Quartet Integra and Martin coordinated their audition. The Quartet has been lauded as the most exciting ensemble to emerge from Japan (and Ye Un from Korea) since the famous Tokyo String Quartet formed in 1969 at Juilliard. I love a certain symmetry here: two of the non-Japanese born musicians playing as members of the Tokyo String Quartet were Yarlung Special Advisor Martin Beaver, who became principal violin in 2002, and Clive Greensmith, who joined Tokyo as cellist in 1999. Both Martin and Clive performed with the Tokyo Quartet until the ensemble gave their final concerts in 2013, and now Martin and Clive co-direct Chamber Music at Colburn School and have mentored the four members of Quartet Integra. Before their Colburn residency, Quartet Integra won a four-year fellowship with Suntory Hall's Chamber Music Academy where they were coached by Tokyo Quartet members Koichiro Harada, Kikuei Ikeda and Kazuhide Isomura. This is generational integrity and communication worthy of Kyoka, Rintaro, Itsuki and Ye Un. As we celebrate Yarlung's 20th Anniversary, we are enjoying thinking back to our original inspiration. We began working with young musicians starting international concert careers and sharing their transformative performances with the world. Yarlung Records takes it's name from the Yarlung Valley in Central Tibet, which legend holds as a meeting place between heaven and earth. It is in this valley, at the site of Yambulakhang Castle in our Yarlung Records logo, where Heaven and Earth touched in order to transform humanity. What could be a better metaphor for the transformative power of great music? I feel a deep connection between this mythical name for our record label and Quartet Integra. Hearing them play and working with these four good-natured and talented people reminded me why we created Yarlung Records in the first place. Despite my earlier comment, Quartet Integra is not a Japanese ensemble. Three of their members come from Japan and one from Korea, but they are inherently international. Quartet Integra lived in California these past years, and as indicated will spend the next several years in France and Germany. Their ties to the famous Tokyo String Quartet increase the Japanese-ness of Quartet Integra, but Tokyo String Quartet was actually founded in 1969 at Juilliard in New York City, not Japan. In planning their album cover, this image of the Toyosaki Kompira Shrine Torii Gate on the west coast of Hokkaido jumped out at us, and reflected Quartet Integra's refreshing vitality. As does the inspiration for the name of Yarlung Records, a Torii gate symbolizes a portal to the sacred in Shintoism connecting everyday reality with transcendence. -Bob Attiyeh, producer
Haydn: String Quartets Op 17 No 1, 2, & 4 / Kodály Quartet
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Jan 18, 1999
"The Kodaly Quartet seem very much at home in this music, which they approach with affection, yet with an appealing directness which leads to playing which is perfectly integrated, yet fresh. The recording could hardly be bettered: the balance is most natural."
-- Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]
-- Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]
the earth trembled
PENTATONE
CD
$16.99
$19.99
Save 15%
Sep 04, 2026
Signum Quartett presents the album the earth trembled, recontextualising the visionary string quartets of Leos Janacek alongside the striking String Quartet Op. 8 by Vitezslava Kapralova. Janacek's lifelong engagement with folk traditions shaped these works profoundly; he lays bare an extraordinary spectrum of feeling, exposing the innermost reaches of his psyche with an almost unsettling immediacy, music in which the earth really does tremble. Set against this, Kapralova's quartet offers balance: a strikingly youthful yet assured voice emerging from the same cultural milieu, opening an equally compelling emotional range. Interspersed throughout are fragments of Janacek's folk song arrangements and intimate miniatures from his album for Kamila Stosslova, whose absent voice subtly haunts the programme, weaving a fragile, imagined narrative between the works. This recording offers a fresh perspective on works that have accompanied the Quartett for many years and remain among the most emotionally overwhelming in the repertoire. Signum Quartett is frequently hailed as one of the most adventurous and outstanding ensembles of today. This is the quartet's fourth album with PENTATONE, after the Schubert cycle including Aus der Ferne (2018), Ins stille Land (2020), and Lebensmuth (2023).
Eberl: Rediscovered - 3 String quartets, Op.13 / casalQuartett
Solo Musica
CD
$10.49
$20.99
Save 50%
Apr 15, 2022
In the course of their research for the five-part recording production "Beethoven's World 1799-1851" (2020), the casalQuartett came across not only Carl Czerny, one of Beethoven's two pupils, represented by his 28th String Quartet in A flat major, but also the Viennese composer Anton Eberl (1765-1807), who was Mozart's friend and pupil. As an outstanding pianist and composer, he achieved great popularity and, after returning to Vienna from St. Petersburg, had even more prominent supporters than Beethoven. His life ended unexpectedly at the zenith of his success in 1807. His music, as can be seen in the excellent recordings of the symphonies by Concerto Köln and the piano sonatas by Luca Quintavalle, is often surprisingly modern for its time. Like Mozart's late works and those of the new Beethoven, they augur the revolutionary dawn of Romanticism. The casalQuartett has received numerous awards, including the ECHO KLASSIK 2010, 2015, 2017, the Pizzicato Award Luxembourg, the DIAPASON Decouverte, the DIAPASON d'Or, the German Record Critics' Award and has been nominated three times for the ICMA Award and the American Grammy.
Haydn: String Quartets Op, 17, 33 & 54 / Bennewitz Quartet
Supraphon
CD
$29.99
Jun 09, 2023
During the 18th century, the string quartet gained the position of the most valued and most challenging chamber music genre, and gradually became a vehicle for conveying the composer’s personal feelings. Joseph Haydn played a key role in forging the quartet’s classical form. He created almost 70 string quartets, which, along with the symphonies, constitute the largest, as well as the most significant, part of his oeuvre. Haydn accorded them the form that would serve as the model for Mozart, Beethoven, and later composers. Just as fascinating as the quantity is his quartets’ sheer diversity, with each of them being singular, featuring novel (often humorous) ideas, experiments, as well as constant seeking of new possibilities of expression.
The three quartets included on the present album chart the development of Haydn’s musical idiom, from Op. 17 (1771), which he wrote at the age of 40, through Op. 33, dubbed “Gli Scherzi” (1781, dedicated to the Grand Duke of Russia Pavel Petrovich, the future Tsar Paul I), to the formally experimental pieces making up Op. 54 (1788). The Bennewitz Quartet have given numerous concerts worldwide, including at the most prestigious venues (Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, concert halls in New York, Seoul, etc.) and such renowned festivals as the Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival and Rheingau Musik Festival. At many of them, they have performed quartets by Haydn, one of their favourite composers, whose music they endow with a transparent sound, revealing their levity and sense for detail. The Bennewitz Quartet – at home with Haydn
Haydn: The Amadeus Quartet Recordings, Vol. 6 (Berlin, 1950-1969)
Audite Musikproduktion
CD
$30.99
Apr 07, 2017
Joseph Haydn’s string quartets, often rated as the basis for playing quartets, represented far more than an obligation to the Amadeus Quartet. During their entire career, which spans four decades, they thoroughly and continually dedicated themselves to these works, especially those of Haydn’s middle and late periods. Most of their concert programs featured a quartet by Haydn and in their sonic legacy, Haydn’s string quartets make up more than a fifth of the total. The musicians held these works in such high esteem due, on the one hand, to their relative technical ease and, on the other, their high musical demands.
REVIEW::
This batch is devoted entirely to Haydn, and includes works that the Amadeus never recorded commercially: Opp 9/3, 20/5, and 33/2 (The Joke). For the last, the Amadeus cut a forceful profile in the scherzo and make an affectionate beeline for the gentle ‘joke’ at the close of the finale. Their playing of the F minor Quartet (Op 20/5) suggests implied parallels with Mozart’s G minor Quintet in the scherzo, while the lilting Adagio is given the loveliest reading imaginable. The C major Quartet Op 54 No 2 features a brief Adagio that can only be described as cantorial: the solo violin wails expressively over supportive chords, the effect not unlike the ‘beklemmt’ passage in Beethoven’s Cavatina (the Quartet Op 130). We’re given a complete recording of the Quartet from 1969 and that movement alone as recorded in 1950, both extraordinarily moving. Fifteen works are included overall (the majority originating in Haydn’s later period), including The Seven Last Words which is additionally available as a downloadable ‘extended version’ with German texts. An unmissable collection.
— Gramophone
Hindemith: String Quartets Nos. 1, 4 and 7
Wergo
CD
$20.99
Mar 01, 1998
The recording of Paul Hindemith's string quartets by the world-famous Juilliard String Quartet - with founder-member Robert Mann (who left the ensemble after the 1996/97 season) as first violinist - has been completed. The third CD is now available. The CD contains a real "jewel": Hindemith's first quartet op. 2 which remained totally unknown unless it was published in 1994; whereas his fourth quartet op. 22 - performed 127 times just by Hindemith's ensemble in the 1920s, the Amar Quartet - is by far the most popular piece in it's repertoire! German Record Critics' Award for the complete recording of Hindemith's string quartets by the Juilliard String Quartet! The CD was awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics' Award!
Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 1-3 / Kodaly Quartet
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Mar 15, 1990
"The Kodaly Quartet are fully worthy of the composer's inexhaustible invention and make a splendid bargain recommendation. Their playing brings joyful pleasure in Haydn's inspiration and there is not the slightest suspicion of over-rehearsal or of routine: every bar of the music springs to life spontaneously, and these musicians' insights bring an ideal combination of authority and warmth, emotional balance and structural awareness."
Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]
Penguin Guide [2003/4 Edition]
Ries: Complete Flute Quartets
Brilliant Classics
CD
$11.99
$14.99
Save 20%
Apr 18, 2025
Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) is still best known for the early period in his career when he studied with Beethoven and then became his secretary; copying scores and handling correspondence for a composer whose relationship with the outside world only became more unpredictable with the onset of deafness. However, Ries (like his master, born in Bonn) fled Vienna in 1807 and thereafter embarked on a well-travelled career - in Paris, then Vienna again, venturing as far as St Petersburg and London, before settling in Frankfurt. Within a prolific output, he wrote 30 separate works scored for a solo flute, almost all of which date from his period in London (1813-24), where he won a reputation as a piano teacher to the well-to-do while producing his own music for London's vibrant concert life. The three Quartets Op.145 for flute, violin, viola and cello were composed in 1814-15 and published in 1826, while the trio of Quartets WoO35 belong to Ries's later period in Germany. Ries dedicated Op.145 to Charles Aders, a wealthy amateur flautist, who likely commissioned him; there is no sign of the composer 'writing down' to accommodate any limitations in his dedicatee's playing, from the poignant and tumultuous emotions that pervade Quartet No.2, and the vibrant spirit of the finales, such as the Allegro all'espagnola of Quartet No.1. As Ginevra Petrucci remarks in her booklet essay, 'Ries masterfully balances diversity of form with captivating expression. The writing's density and variety are remarkable, marked by thematic abundance, rich modulations, rhythmic contrasts, and variations.' This is true even more of the later Quartets WoO35, which were probably written with the flautist Anton Bernhard Furstenau in mind. The expression is notably more refined and Romantic in spirit than the earlier set, sometimes softer-edged, often with more sophisticated dialogue between flute and strings, 'bearing a near-Beethovenian character.' Italian born, Ginevra Petrucci graduated from Stony Brook and Yale. Based in New York, she performs across the US while continuing to return to Europe for projects such as this recording. She is joined here by Trio David, a trio of Italian musicians who came together in 2020 and since then have given concerts across Italy as well as recording the string trios of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari for Brilliant Classics. - Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) was born in Bonn and moved to Vienna in 1801, where his life became closely related to that of Ludwig van Beethoven (also a native of Bonn.). Ries studied piano with him, copied his scores and was the interpreter of several new works, notably the premiere of the Third Piano Concerto. Ries also wrote the first biography of Beethoven, an invaluable source of first-hand information. - Ries' style inevitably is modelled on that of his master Beethoven, he was however strong enough to stand on his own. His compositions include symphonies, violin and piano concertos, three operas, and numerous chamber works, reflecting a style that bridges classicism and early romanticism. - Ries' Flute Quartets stand out for their concertante qualities. The flute shines in brilliant passages, while the themes and developments are shared by all four instruments. The expressive individuality of these pieces, with original and consistent dialogue between the protagonists, places them among the best in the genre, after Mozart's works. - Played by Italian flutist Ginevra Petrucci, who already brilliantly recorded chamber works for her instrument by Beethoven (BC 96494), Kuhlau (BC 94769), Briccialdi (BC 95767), Haydn (BC 94620) and Muczynski (BC 95433).
Birth Of The String Quartet / Casal Quartet
Solo Musica
CD
$20.99
Oct 01, 2009
This is a disc that deserves to be popular well beyond those already addicted to string quartets or to music of this period.
In listening to music, as in many other occupations, context is crucial. What might sound unremarkable in one context stands out in another. When recitals are given of Haydn Quartets it is too easy to think that the incredible sophistication of the later works means that the earlier examples can be regarded essentially as steps on the path towards that achievement. On this disc on the other hand the (relatively) early Haydn quartet stands out for its astonishing freedom, imagination and ingenuity in the use of the instruments and for the composer’s ability to extract all he can from his musical ideas. It is not that the other works are in any way poor or uninteresting but that the Haydn is the one that most clearly demonstrates the way in which writing for the medium would go.
To start at the beginning, however, the Sonata a Quattro by Alessandro Scarlatti is a pleasant piece, looking back to Corelli as well as forward to the Classical style embraced much more thoroughly by Sammartini. Wisely the booklet does not suggest that either of these works represents in itself “the birth of the string quartet”, but rather that this was a gradual process in which these are milestones, possibly even key milestones. Certainly the remaining quartets on the disc, by Mozart, Boccherini and Haydn are all early examples of the quartet in the form that has continued to the present. Perhaps form is not the best word to use, as it is not so much the structure of the music as the approach to the potential of a medium which can provide four individual voices or which can combine and contrast them in an apparently infinite number of ways.
The booklet notes suggest that Boccherini’s Op. 2 are the first real examples of the genre. On the basis of the work included here I would not argue with this. It is a very individual piece in only three movements, making the most of the minor tonality, very appealing melodically and full of imaginative ideas and textures. Although the Mozart is his earliest example of the medium it too is full of ideas and of variety and is seen to its best advantage in this company. As I have already indicated however, of all the works on the disc it is the Haydn that most clearly shows the way in which the medium would develop, as well as being of great beauty and effectiveness in itself.
All of this is made strikingly apparent by the superb performances by the Casal Quartet, who thoroughly understand the idiom of these works. Much is made in the booklet of their use of four instruments all by the seventeenth century maker Jacob Stainer. Certainly the reedy sound they produce suits the music and their playing style, probably best described as historically informed. The sheer beauty of sound of the Quartet as recorded here is in itself a major reason to purchase this disc.
The booklet’s notes – in German and English – nowhere explain whether the words “Volume 1” on the cover mean that there are to be more discs of quartets of this period from the Casal or merely more discs in general from them. Whilst I would welcome either, the former would be especially desirable as they clearly have a real sympathy with and understanding of this music. This is a disc that deserves to be popular well beyond those already addicted to string quartets or to music of this period.
- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International
In listening to music, as in many other occupations, context is crucial. What might sound unremarkable in one context stands out in another. When recitals are given of Haydn Quartets it is too easy to think that the incredible sophistication of the later works means that the earlier examples can be regarded essentially as steps on the path towards that achievement. On this disc on the other hand the (relatively) early Haydn quartet stands out for its astonishing freedom, imagination and ingenuity in the use of the instruments and for the composer’s ability to extract all he can from his musical ideas. It is not that the other works are in any way poor or uninteresting but that the Haydn is the one that most clearly demonstrates the way in which writing for the medium would go.
To start at the beginning, however, the Sonata a Quattro by Alessandro Scarlatti is a pleasant piece, looking back to Corelli as well as forward to the Classical style embraced much more thoroughly by Sammartini. Wisely the booklet does not suggest that either of these works represents in itself “the birth of the string quartet”, but rather that this was a gradual process in which these are milestones, possibly even key milestones. Certainly the remaining quartets on the disc, by Mozart, Boccherini and Haydn are all early examples of the quartet in the form that has continued to the present. Perhaps form is not the best word to use, as it is not so much the structure of the music as the approach to the potential of a medium which can provide four individual voices or which can combine and contrast them in an apparently infinite number of ways.
The booklet notes suggest that Boccherini’s Op. 2 are the first real examples of the genre. On the basis of the work included here I would not argue with this. It is a very individual piece in only three movements, making the most of the minor tonality, very appealing melodically and full of imaginative ideas and textures. Although the Mozart is his earliest example of the medium it too is full of ideas and of variety and is seen to its best advantage in this company. As I have already indicated however, of all the works on the disc it is the Haydn that most clearly shows the way in which the medium would develop, as well as being of great beauty and effectiveness in itself.
All of this is made strikingly apparent by the superb performances by the Casal Quartet, who thoroughly understand the idiom of these works. Much is made in the booklet of their use of four instruments all by the seventeenth century maker Jacob Stainer. Certainly the reedy sound they produce suits the music and their playing style, probably best described as historically informed. The sheer beauty of sound of the Quartet as recorded here is in itself a major reason to purchase this disc.
The booklet’s notes – in German and English – nowhere explain whether the words “Volume 1” on the cover mean that there are to be more discs of quartets of this period from the Casal or merely more discs in general from them. Whilst I would welcome either, the former would be especially desirable as they clearly have a real sympathy with and understanding of this music. This is a disc that deserves to be popular well beyond those already addicted to string quartets or to music of this period.
- John Sheppard, MusicWeb International
Persichetti: String Quartets / Lydian String Quartet
Centaur Records
CD
$18.99
Nov 01, 2006
PERSICHETTI String Quartets: Nos. 1–4 • Lydian Str Qrt • CENTAUR 2833 (76:44)
The creative legacy of Vincent Persichetti (1915–1987) comprises a large and extremely varied body of work, much of it still barely known to even the musically sophisticated public. Among his less frequently heard works are his four string quartets, which span the period 1939–1972. Fairly evenly spaced throughout his productive life, they represent most facets of his enormous compositional range. However, not represented by the string quartets is his most ingratiating vein: the lively, diatonic, largely consonant sub-style found in his most popular works, many of those composed during the 1950s for wind ensemble and for piano solo. The aspects of his style represented by these string quartets are found in their most austere manifestations. Therefore, though most are masterful works, not to be overlooked by anyone with a serious interest in this extremely important but currently under-rated composer, they are definitely not the music one would select as an enticement for the general listener.
The String Quartet No. 1 dates from 1939, when Persichetti was still seeking a distinctive creative voice of his own. Many of his works from this period, such as the Piano Sonata No. 2, Sonata for Violin Solo, and the Sonata for Two Pianos, are quite dissonant harmonically and attenuated tonally—especially as viewed within the context of American music at that time—but without a depth of expression commensurate with the severity of the language. For me this is not a winning combination, and I find these pieces, including the String Quartet No. 1, to be among the composer’s less successful efforts. Two of the quartet’s four relatively short movements—the two faster ones—display a mercurial energy that is somewhat engaging. But the other two movements—almost Schoenbergian in their willful angularity—offer little appeal.
The String Quartet No. 2 is probably the easiest to approach, as its materials are largely modal and diatonic, although it is not by any means a romp. Composed in 1944, it may be viewed in the context of such contemporaneous pieces as the Piano Sonata No. 3 and the Symphony No. 3. These compositions are overtly “American-sounding” in their materials, and strongly influenced by devices and principles found in the music of Roy Harris—self-directed (autogenetic) formal designs rather than classical models, and much use of parallelism (organum). In addition to its generally lighter tone, the quartet includes some curious reminiscences from Beethoven, most obviously the Grosse Fuga . (Quotations—from his own works as well as those of others—form one of many cryptic aspects of Persichetti’s creative personality.)
The 1950s were Persichetti’s most fertile decade, and the period when his own distinctive compositional voice emerged most clearly. The 40-odd pieces from this decade may be readily divided into two sub-categories: those that are highly accessible, often intended to appeal to younger musicians, and those that are quite challenging. String Quartet No. 3, composed in 1959, falls into this latter group, along with the Concerto for Piano Four Hands, Symphony No. 5, Piano Sonata No. 10, and Piano Quintet. (This Third Quartet even makes some explicit reference to the Fifth Symphony.) All five are multisectional works, each integrated into one movement based on a single theme usually introduced at the outset. These works—though often largely atonal and dense with significant substance—achieve a masterful fluidity and lucidity of contrapuntal motivic development that can capture a listener’s interest on first hearing, and sustain it through deeper study and analysis. In fact, these five works are arguably Persichetti’s greatest compositions, although among them, the Quartet No. 3 is probably the most austere and difficult to penetrate, owing to its 12-tone theme, its often-glassy sonorities, and the abstraction of the medium. But it is a brilliant work—one that rewards attentive and repeated listening; it is probably my own favorite among Persichetti’s string quartets.
The Quartet No. 4 dates from 1972, when Persichetti was seeking to embrace a number of the newer compositional devices appearing in the works of younger composers, and integrate them into his vast musical language. These pieces elevate such elements as gesture and texture to the status of musical ideas, subject to their own intensive development, while avoiding discernible tonality except in the most isolated—although often quite structurally significant—moments. This was also a time when Persichetti was preoccupied with his series of Parables , 25 pieces that he defined enigmatically as “non-programmatic musical essays about a single germinal idea. They convey a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison or analogies.” Most of the Parables are short studies written for monophonic instruments, but some are larger works for fuller forces. And some of these bear other designations, their inclusion among the Parables indicated by subtitle. For example, Persichetti’s sole opera, The Sibyl , is subtitled, “Parable XX.” Similarly, the String Quartet No. 4, completed the same year as the frequently played Parable IX for band, is subtitled, “Parable X.” In a sense, this work is a conceptual expansion of the previous quartet, relying less completely on linear contrapuntal development, while embracing texture and gesture as primary elements, as noted above, often exhibiting contrapuntal relationships of their own. Though its rarefied, ethereal sonorities, fragmentary textures, and lack of perceptible tonality may seem somewhat forbidding upon initial acquaintance, Persichetti usually maintains a discernible metrical pulse that functions as an internal anchor, while the ongoing developmental processes remain lucid and coherent.
To its credit, Centaur does not bill this new release as “First Recordings.” Presumably, it is aware that 30 years ago Persichetti’s four string quartets were issued on a two-LP set that featured the New Art String Quartet, then in residence at Arizona State University. This was a beautifully performed and handsomely packaged and annotated set, produced by composer David Cohen (who had been a student of Persichetti) and was available only from Arizona State directly. Unfortunately, that set probably found its way into only a handful of collections—I’ve never met anyone who even knew of it! I’ve often thought that those recordings ought to be reissued on CD, what with the broader means of dissemination available today via the Internet. Perhaps this new Centaur release preempts the need for such a reissue. There is no question but that the Lydian String Quartet plays with considerably more polish, precision, and confidence, and the quality of recording is significantly superior as well. However, in an ideal world, I’d still like to see the Arizona set reissued, simply as another—and quite respectable—take on the music. Perhaps of lesser importance to most listeners, Cohen’s program notes were more astute than are those by the Lydian’s first-violinist Daniel Stepner; and there is an excellent photo of the composer gracing the Arizona jacket, while Centaur offers no photo of Persichetti.
FANFARE: Walter Simmons
Brahms: The String Quintets & Sextets / Alexander String Quartet
Foghorn Classics
CD
$29.99
Jan 01, 2014
BRAHMS String Sextets Nos. 1 1 and 2 1. String Quintets Nos. 1 2 and 2 2 • Alexander Str Qrt; 1,2 Toby Appel (va); 1 David Requiro (vc) • FOGHORN 2012 (2 CDs: 130:33)
Completed in 1860, the first of Brahms’s two sextets is an effusive outpouring of youthful ardor that belies the age and life-experience of the 27-year-old composer who wrote it. By 1860, Brahms had already lived through the harrowing events of Schumann’s attempted suicide, commitment to a mental institution, and premature death, not to mention the effects of those events on Clara and her children. But Brahms was also in love with Clara, or at least with some idealized love surrogate for Clara, and this B?-Major Sextet seems to sing a song of blissful, sun-filled days, until the arrival of the second movement, that is—a set of variations in D Minor on a theme strongly redolent of the Gypsy melos Brahms picked up during his tour with Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi and which would infuse much of his music for the rest of his life.
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this Sextet is the clarity of the textures and lines Brahms maintains throughout the work, in spite of the addition of two more instruments to the ensemble and the thickness of the scoring. It’s a transparency that can be heard with penetrating purity in this performance by the Alexander Quartet in which Tony Appel takes the first viola part, and David Requiro takes the second cello part.
Four years later, Brahms turned his attention to a second sextet, this time in G Major, completing it in 1865. Throughout its composition, Brahms was involved in the most serious romantic dalliance of his life, one that very nearly led to the marriage altar. The woman was Agathe von Siebold, to whom Brahms had proposed. Then, suddenly, Brahms got cold feet and broke off the engagement. What this has to do with the Sextet is that it contains one of the composer’s rare (perhaps only) use of a musical cryptogram in which bars 162–168 of the first movement contain the notes A-G-A-D-H (B)-E, a reference to Agathe.
The G-Major Sextet is also richly melodic, but tinged perhaps with just a bit of wistful nostalgia and regret; at 32, Brahms is becoming the sorrowful, lonely traveler we know from many of his later works. The minor-key Scherzo, which now comes in second place, and the Poco Adagio which follows it, have a certain portentous gravitas about them, as if Brahms now knows the journey going forward will not be a particularly happy one for him.
Toby Appel and David Requiro switch roles for the G-Major Sextet, with Appel playing second viola and Requiro playing first cello. The effect on the ensemble is a darkening one, which suits the music perfectly. Go-to, long-time favorites in this piece have been the Nash Ensemble on Onyx and the Raphael Ensemble on Hyperion, but once again, the Alexander Quartet, joined by Appel and Requiro, makes a most persuasive case for the score with a tonal refulgence, textural translucence, and expressivity of phrasing that are hard to resist.
Much later in Brahms’s output come the two string quintets. The F-Major was written in 1882 at Bad Ischl, the composer’s favorite summer retreat. The normally highly self-critical Brahms was so pleased with the work that he wrote to his publisher, “You have never had such a beautiful work from me,” and in a letter to Clara Schumann, he called it “one of my finest works.” History has not necessarily concurred, if one judges by the number of recordings the piece has received; at around 30, it would seem to be Brahms’s least popular chamber work. Hearing it, one has to wonder why, for it contains some of the composer’s most haimish music, warm, sun-drenched, and filled with the optimism and promise borne by a spring day. Unusual for Brahms’s larger chamber works as well is the fact that the Quintet is in three movements instead of four, with the second movement combining elements of a slow movement and a Scherzo into one.
I first learned the quintets from the 1970s LP recordings by the Guarneri Quartet with Michael Tree, which I reviewed in their digitized transfers in 32:6. The players bring a great deal of warmth and bigheartedness to their readings, but they’re perhaps not quite as technically polished as are the Boston Symphony Chamber Players on a Nonesuch CD, which I’ve long enjoyed. I haven’t heard the Uppsala Chamber Soloists’ recent entry on Daphne, which Lynn Bayley praised highly in 37:1, but of those I am familiar with—and in addition to the above-cited Guarneri and Boston versions, they include the Juilliard Quartet with Walter Trampler and the Hagen Quartet with Gérard Caussé—I’d have to say that the Alexander Quartet with Tony Appel outshines them all. The readings are closest to the classic Guarneri accounts in their warmth and beauteous sound, but more technically polished, better balanced, and offering more detailed recorded sound.
The same may be said of the G-Major Quintet, op. 111, the work Brahms intended to be his last, but as we know, Fate had other plans for him. The Quintet was composed in 1890, again at Bad Ischl, as the previous Quintet had been. Surprisingly, there’s no sense of leave-taking, nothing autumnal in the character of this music. It’s in fact quite joyful. In certain ways, however, it does sum up the totality of Brahms’s art. It has been called the composer’s most cosmopolitan work, suggesting a diversity of Italian, Viennese, Hungarian, and Slavic influences. The score has an almost serenade-like personality to it, reflecting back on Brahms’s early orchestral serenades.
These are performances to fall in love with and to live with happily ever after.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
Campagnoli: 6 Flute Quartets / Il Demetrio
Brilliant Classics
CD
$13.99
Mar 23, 2018
Bartolomeo Campagnoli was a violinist by training, who worked in the courts and capitals of Baroque-era Europe, with posts in Rome, Dresden and then in Leipzig, where he was leader of the venerable Gewandhaus orchestra. Thus most of his own compositions are for strings, focused on his own instrument, and often with pedagogical or commercial aims in mind, such as the 41 Capricci for solo viola and the 7 Divertimenti for solo violin. There is also an extensive Method – in 132 separate lessons! – which was first published by Ricordi in 1797, and reprinted and translated many times. It was around this time that he wrote the six delightful, serenade-like works on this album, scored for flute and string trio. Often the flute engages in vivacious dialogue with the upper voice of the trio, within the tradition of similar works by Tartini, Rolla and Mercadante. The predominant mood is light, the expression airy and untroubled. The exception to this is the Fourth Sonata in E minor – the only minor-key quartet of the set, and the only one cast in three movements, with a central Andante grazioso of a suave gravity that would not have disgraced the young Mozart. Founded by the violinist Maurizio Schiavo, the ensemble Il Demetrio is a historically informed chamber group specializing in music of the Baroque era, undertaking much original research of their own to unearth little-known compositions from Italian libraries.
Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 77; Folk Music from Scotland
Linn Records
CD
$20.99
Jan 24, 2025
Following two highly acclaimed albums, the Maxwell Quartet rounds off it's Haydn mini-series with the composer's two Op. 77 string quartets, juxtaposed with it's signature pairing of Scottish folk music. The quartet, which has become known for it's 'infectious enthusiasm' and 'irresistible' playing (BBC Music Magazine), showcases it's compelling storytelling with Haydn's last foray in the genre. The two quartets balance and complement each other perfectly: one brilliant, enigmatic, youthful and light, the other considered, noble and with a certain degree of gravitas. The complementary choice of Scottish folk music is equally balanced, ranging from the joyful - The Marquis of Tullibardine, Captain Campbell's March, etc. - to the more sombre - Hector the Hero. The cleverly constructed programme epitomises Hatto Beyerle's aphorism (the Maxwell Quartet's mentor, and dedicatee of this album): 'In order to truly understand Haydn's music, you must first understand folk music.'
Pleyel: String Quartets Op 2 No 4-6 / Enso Quartet
Naxos
CD
$19.99
Feb 21, 2006
PLEYEL String Quartets: in E?, op. 2/4; in B?, op. 2/5; in D, op. 2/6 ? Ens? Quartet ? NAXOS 8557497 (56:38)
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Ignaz Pleyel (1757?1831) composed a total of 57 string quartets, and by the time he wrote the half-dozen quartets that were engraved in 1784 by Graeffer in Vienna as op. 2, Haydn had already composed his ops. 20 and 33 sets, both of which expanded the scope and breadth of the form. Mozart was familiar with Pleyel?s work and it may have been Pleyel?s op. 2 that prompted Mozart to write his father, ?You will find them [the quartets] worth the trouble. They are very well written and most pleasing to listen to. You will also see at once who [Haydn] was his master. It will be a lucky day for music if later on Pleyel should be able to replace Haydn.?
Indeed, the presence of Haydn is unmistakable in these works, although it is not as if he were guiding Pleyel?s quill, for these quartets are not knock-offs. Rather they are as annotator Allan Badley noted, ?a remarkable achievement for a young composer and it is one of the cruel quirks of fate that works of such vitality and imagination could be forgotten for so long.? I add to Dr. Badley?s remarks that this music impresses immediately by way of its tunefulness, memorability, and tight, but never pedantic structure. It flows beautifully from page to page and movement to movement with the ease of a brook gently making its way down a hillside
The Ens? String Quartet?an American ensemble, by the way?is made up of violinists Maureen Nelson and Tereza Stanislav, violist Robert Brophy, and cellist Richard Belcher. The quartet takes its name from a Japanese zen painting of a circle ?that represents many things, perfection as well as imperfection, the moment of chaos that is creation, the emptiness of the void, the endless circle of life, and the fullness of the spirit.? In 2003, the group won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and in the same year was awarded top prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs in Ohio. They have appeared in leading venues across the land including Lincoln Center and the Merkin Concert Hall (New York) and have been the guests of Bill McLaughlin on St. Paul Sunday Morning , heard nationwide on member stations of National Public Radio.
Lacking the first of the two Naxos discs that make up Pleyel?s op. 2, I placed this arrival in my player with no preconceptions as to what I might hear. It didn?t take long for me to determine that I was privy to extraordinary talent. The performances are replete with enthusiasm and momentum and, drawing upon a winning combination of instinct and convention, they evoke not only a distinct personality, but also exhibit poise, coupled with an exceptional sense of vitality and elegance. The energy generated by these young musicians is obvious from the get-go, as is their commitment to the repertoire. Vital and intellectually challenging, these curiosities repay the listener?s interest time after time by way of their memorable and affable nature.
Without doubt, these quartets stand their ground with similar works of Haydn and Mozart, and with advocacy this strong, they will certainly begin to emerge from musical oblivion, taking their long overdue place in the repertoire.
FANFARE: Michael Carter
