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Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
String Quartet in A major Op. 2 [29:02]
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Crisantemi [5:52]
Three Minuets in A major [9:14]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
String Quartet in E minor [22:21]
Ensō Quartet (Maureen Nelson and John Marcus (violins), Melissa Reardon (viola), Richard Belcher (cello))
rec. St Anne’s Church, Toronto, Canada, 30 July-2 August 2012
NAXOS 8.573108 [66:29]
 
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

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