Here are quartets by three composers whose main activities were far from
that field. All are better known for their work in the operatic field
although Strauss in fact wrote a great deal of chamber music as well (see
review).
These chamber works occupy very different positions in their
composers' careers. Strauss’s Quartet was written when he was still
at school; Puccini’s two works date from before his first major success with
Manon Lescaut; while Verdi’s Quartet dates from 1873, the height of
his maturity. They differ greatly in character too. Strauss was clearly very
much influenced by classical models, especially in the very Haydnesque
finale, and little of the work suggests the mature composer. Nonetheless it
provides pleasant listening, demonstrating, if it needed to be, that right
from a very early age Strauss was able to construct an extended and eloquent
work, if not necessarily saying a great deal original or profound. It is
nonetheless played here in a way that suggests the performers are wholly
convinced by it, which helps listeners to come to the same view.
Crisantemi is much better known as the direct forerunner of part
of
Manon Lescaut. It can sound hysterical in the wrong hands but
here the players stop just short of the exaggeration heard in some other
performances. The earlier Minuets are charming and a pleasure to hear.
Verdi’s Quartet is by a long way the best work on the disc, and the players
clearly relish its more subtle changes of character and interplay of
parts.
Altogether this is a disc full of interesting and, in the case of the
Verdi and Puccini, lovable, music. I am sure that I will return occasionally
to the Strauss, but certainly I look forward to further enjoying these
entirely admirable performances of the Italian works
.
John Sheppard
