Romantic Pattern Style

What a pity that Vol. 3 of string quartets by George Onslow (1784-1853) is the last in the survey. It may just be the best of the three, including Onslow’s great early C minor quartet op. 8, and two other top-notch specimens overflowing with melody, excitement, and power. If you’re new to Onslow, this program is the perfect introduction to his variegated talents and expressive aims. The Mandelring Quartet is a spirited and persuasive team playing from the heart; three members of the quartet are siblings and their father was an Onslow scholar.

We've had to wait eighteen months for Tudor to complete Daskalakis and Ishay's survey of Raff's violin sonatas. The first disk (Tudor 7022 - review) was well received, revealing a warmer and more lyrical side to these works than had been displayed by the pairing of Ingolf Turban and Jascha Nemtsov with their edgy but impressive performances of the first three sonatas for cpo. The cpo project of recording all the music for violin and piano seemingly having stalled for the time being, this second disk has another Raff recording first, the emotionally charged Violin Sonata No.5.

It may well be that it is not chamber music that immediately comes to mind when you think of Sibelius. That's fair enough but he certainly wrote pieces for chamber groupings. There are, for example some single movements for quartet composed when he was a young man. Then comes this A minor quartet of 1889 and there's at least one other apart from the B flat quartet known as Voces Intimae. There are also a few pieces for strings and piano like the Piano Trio of 1884.

This recording, made in 1991, contains two fine performances. Indeed the performance of Hamlet is better than fine, it is positively thrilling. The Polish orchestra are well able to deliver on this and Leaper shows considerable empathy for the music. The recording is good, if a little lacking in absolute clarity at the bottom end which tends to be just a touch inclined to 'muddiness' at moments of greatest demand. This should not be over-emphasised in view of the excellence of the music making and the general acceptance of the recording. Indeed, the weighty sound-stage and quite close balance suits the heavier approach of Leaper when compared to Karajan on DGG for example, and to a lesser extent, Jansons on Chandos.