MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Giovanni Battista VIOTTI (1755-1824)
Quatuor Concertant no.1 in F, G.112 (1815) [22:14]
Quatuor Concertant no.2 in B flat, G.113 (1815) [25:48]
Quatuor Concertant no.3 in G, G.114 (1815) [22:34]
Members of I Solisti di Perugia: (Paolo Franceschini (violin); Luca Arcese (violin); Luca Ranieri (viola); Maria Cecilia Berioli (cello))
rec. Teatro della Concordia, Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy, 2-4 June 2008. DDD
CAMERATA CM-28170 [70:44]

Experience Classicsonline



Aside from his Paganini-like reputation as a violinist, Giovanni Viotti is probably best known for his 29 violin concertos, and rightly so. Nevertheless, he also wrote numerous, sonatas, duos, trios and quartets, in all of which the violin writing is dominant - and generally magnificent. Altogether he composed 18 string quartets, although three of these optionally replace the first violin with a flute, and further arranged several of his duos as string quartets. Viotti published the three on this release by Camerata, a Japanese label, as Quatuors Concertants in 1817. They were his last quartets, and differ somewhat from the rest in that the music is more evenly distributed among the four strings.

Despite their relatively late date, there is little of the ethos of Romanticism in these works - they are very much in the spirit of Haydn, right down to the four movement structure and minuet. There is no great virtuosity as such; in its place, moderation and clarity - but also an almost endless supply of cantabile lyricism and melodic invention. The three Quartets are a model lesson in how to write beguiling music of immediate appeal to a wide audience.

The website of I Solisti di Perugia, the Italian chamber orchestra from whose members the four soloists here are drawn, indicates a discography, achieved in only ten years, of at least 24 recordings, typically of 18th to early 19th century repertoire, so they are well versed in the conventions of the music. The soloists here perform solidly; whilst there is no great abundance of enthusiasm or excitement, nor are there any great lapses of discrimination, although judging by the tone of one of the violins, they do seem to be flagging slightly by the G major Quartet, in which there also appear to be a couple of recording mis-edits affecting the cello.

Sound quality is good on the whole, although the microphones are so placed that they pick up the sometimes excessive inhalations of at least one of the soloists, who sounds a little catarrhal. Also, there is a suspicion that a fraction of a second is missing from the beginnings of some tracks, particularly 5.

The booklet itself is reasonably attractive and informative. Although the essay on Viotti is, thankfully, written by a native English speaker, the biographies of the soloists unfortunately are not: "where she continued her studies with A. Bonucci passing out at the top of her class" - another example of editorial indiscretion undermining somewhat the quality of a finished disc.

Byzantion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.