COMPOSERS: Mathias
LABELS: Metier
WORKS: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 3
PERFORMER: Medea Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: MSVCD 92005 DDD
On hearing these, you’d guess Mathias had more than a hint of the East European about him. Bartókian vigour offsets a nostalgia worthy of Schnittke. These are fine young players, well recorded. Parts sound a little too gritty, designer-breathing marring the soft passages, and No. 3 creaking with inflated rhetoric. But No. 2 is impressive, while the first would make an attractive, Kronos-style ‘cult’ piece. Roderic Dunnett
Mathias: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 3
On hearing these, you’d guess Mathias had more than a hint of the East European about him. Bartókian vigour offsets a nostalgia worthy of Schnittke. These are fine young players, well recorded. Parts sound a little too gritty, designer-breathing marring the soft passages, and No. 3 creaking with inflated rhetoric. But No. 2 is impressive, while the first would make an attractive, Kronos-style ‘cult’ piece. Roderic Dunnett
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:12 pm