Guarneri String Quartet

The second in their award-winning series, the Calidore Quartet return with a three-disc album of the Middle Quartets. Their Beethoven performances have been described as “shockingly deep” by LA Times. The first album of Late Quartets won the Chamber Music Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2024. Their interpretation is informed by their diverse set of mentors, which includes Alban Berg, Emerson and Guarneri and yet still uniquely represents the sentiments, aesthetics and research of their generation. Their interpretations of Beethoven are already critically acclaimed with performances at the Lincoln Centre planned as part of their residency.

The Dalí Quartet is acclaimed for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire to an equal standing alongside the Classical and Romantic canon. Tours of it's Classical Roots, Latin Soul programming have reached enthusiastic audiences across the U. S. , Canada and South America. It's fresh approach has been sought out by distinguished series in New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, San Juan and countless communities beyond.

The Guarneri quartet offers very effective approaches to both the E flat quartet, Op. 74, and the C sharp minor quartet, Op. 131. These late (1988) Philips recordings are in my view superior to Guarneri's earlier accounts of the same Beethoven quartets on RCA Beethoven: The String Quartets/ Grosse Fuge . Usually it is risky to opt for late remakes, if a string quartet is playing in one and the same membership for many decades: veteran players typically masque their diminished technical abilities by various mannerisms and pretentious conceptions. Here it is not the case. The 1988 Philips version is just as secure as the RCA version from the sixties but is more nuanced.

If Boccherini was mischievously dubbed “the wife of Haydn”, then Arriaga must have been his second cousin or so. These three quartets are lovely works. Particularly noteworthy is the Quartet in E-flat major (No. 3), with its charming “Pastorale” second movement, but they are all rewarding pieces. The Guarneri Quartet plays them beautifully. Because they are marginal pieces in the quartet repertoire, and because this disc appeared in the mid-1990s when the classical glut was in full “glutitude”, it was easy to overlook these performances. However, if you enjoy Haydn and his school, you won’t find a better release than this one—and it’s extremely well recorded too. It’s good to see it back.

After 45 years as one of the world's top chamber ensembles, the Guarneri is bowing out. Its final CD tackles a slightly offbeat repertoire — a quartet by Kodaly, two by Dohnanyi — with zesty soulfulness and bite. If the group must retire, this is the way to do it.

This second volume of miscellaneous chamber works contains all of the music that is not a formal quartet, quintet, or sextet. In includes the piano trios, the wonderful Terzetto for two violins and viola, works for solo instrument and piano, pieces for piano four-hands, and all of those little, undefinable works, some of which (such as the Bagatelles for two violins, cello, and harmonium) are magnificent.