The well-known British string quartet was founded in 1967 by Kenneth Sillito, who led the ensemble for some twenty years before passing the responsibility to John Georgiadis, at which point the Quartet entered into an exclusive contract with Chandos and made a number of fine recordings. It toured widely abroad and in the UK and was noted for its well-balanced performances. ‘I know this is a disc to be enjoyed again and again. The sound is simply flawless’, wrote the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.
Here is an entirely unaccustomed perspective on Mendelssohn's quartets. These English "period" musicians believe that Romantic music, too, should be played in the original style, with sparing vibrato, distinct articulation, great clarity, and transparency. They even discovered–and use–the bowings and fingerings of Mendelssohn's friend, the violinist Ferdinand David. Since they play extremely well, with a beautiful, full, warm, homogeneous tone, they give the music extraordinary vitality, excitement, and passion as well as a wistful, dreamy inwardness.
French composer Félicien David is a more or less forgotten name today but this fine period-instrument recording by the Cambini-Paris Quartet makes a good case for further exploration of his corpus of works. One or two of David's operas survived for a while in the French repertoire, but he was also more interested in instrumental music than many of his contemporaries. Many areas of his oeuvre lie almost entirely unexplored: his four symphonies, numerous choral works and dozens of songs, for example.
The Borodin Quartet plays the music of its namesake as to the manner born. Theirs is a beautiful, lush realization of this lyrical work, polished and full of nuance, and well-served by the 1980 analog recording. The coupling with Borodin's First Quartet is especially attractive.
The music of Béla Bartók has everything: the mysterious tension of a thriller, loving lyricism, warm string sounds, almost impossible techniques challenging any string player to rediscover his instrument, and exhilarating rhythms which could well be rooted in folk dance. With the first volume in a complete string quartet cycle, The Ragazze Quartet has declared itself Bartók Bound.
Alongside its ongoing and much lauded Haydn and Schubert series, both on-stage and on-record, the Doric String Quartet with this Mendelssohn album is adding a new milestone in its repertoire. Mendelssohn wrote and published these three quartets at very different stages in his life and they therefore outline the complete trajectory of his creative output. The early Op. 12, also called No. 1, was composed in London and includes many musical allusions to Beethoven, dead only a few years before its composition. These subtly contrast with Mendelssohn’s genially flowing energy. While Op. 44 No. 3, which incorporates many deft variations, developments, and combinations, follows an extended honeymoon tour and Mendelssohn’s twenty-ninth birthday, Op. 80 emerged from a bout of helpless depression after the sudden death of Mendelssohn’s older sister and confidante, Fanny. Mendelssohn described this quartet as a Requiem, and the nervous agitation often found in his music here bursts forth with full force.