COMPOSERS: Strauss,Verdi
LABELS: Hyperion Helios
WORKS: String Quartet in E minor
PERFORMER: Delmé Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: CDH 55012 Reissue (1989)
It was an ingenious idea to couple these two quartets written within a few years of each other by composers not normally associated with chamber music: Verdi composed this quartet when he was nearly 60 and at the height of his fame; Strauss completed his when he had just turned 16 and still at school. The Delmé Quartet responds neatly and sweetly to the warmth of Verdi’s melodies and the intricacy of his fugal writing, and makes a strong case for Strauss’s ambitious essay in the Classical style of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. At the modest price of Hyperion’s revamped Helios label, this is well worth investigating. Anthony Burton
Verdi, Strauss
It was an ingenious idea to couple these two quartets written within a few years of each other by composers not normally associated with chamber music: Verdi composed this quartet when he was nearly 60 and at the height of his fame; Strauss completed his when he had just turned 16 and still at school. The Delmé Quartet responds neatly and sweetly to the warmth of Verdi’s melodies and the intricacy of his fugal writing, and makes a strong case for Strauss’s ambitious essay in the Classical style of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:17 pm