CHARLES WUORINEN
Tashi / Percussion Quartet / Fortune New Jersey Percussion Ensemble / The Group for Contemporary Music [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 17/Jul/2007 ] Charles Wuorinen writes virtuosic music for virtuoso performers. He has a profound desire to engage with the listener and with sympathetic performers, and essential to this engagement is a spirit of adventure and fun. |
ALBAN BERG / HUGO WOLF
Berg: String Quartet / Lyric Suite / Wolf: Italian Serenade New Zealand String Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 3/Jul/2007 ] The New Zealand String Quartet play masterpieces by Berg and Wolf |
LEOS JANACEK
Janáček: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 New Zealand String Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 12/Feb/2021 ] Janáček's final decade saw an almost unprecedented creative renewal during which he wrote some of his greatest works. Among them were his chamber music masterpieces, the two String Quartets. The first was inspired by Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer... |
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn: String Quartets, Vol. 1 - Nos. 1, 4, 6 New Zealand String Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Apr/2008 ] "Three cheers for all concerned! This excellent quartet, recorded in the ideal acoustic setting of Holy Martyr's Church in Bradford, Ontario comes across as a symphonically rich group with tight ensemble, perfect intonation and a pulsing energy most... |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: String Quintets Nos. 1 & 2 New Zealand String Quartet, with Maria Lambros (viola) [ Naxos / CD - released 15/Feb/2019 ] Brahms wrote his String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 67 in 1876 and its largely unclouded and cheerful qualities culminate in a theme and variations finale of exceptional imagination and mastery of form. His last chamber music was inspired by a great... |
LUIGI BOCCHERINI
Boccherini: String Quartets Op 32, Nos.1 and 2 AEC Op.39 Quartetto Borciani [ Naxos / CD - released 3/Sep/2001 ] "It is the kind of music that I believe Mozart would have enjoyed for its Italian expressiveness and its charm. The Borciani Quartet is also completely Italian... Their playing is filled with spirit and energy, always flowing forward while sensitive... |
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: String Quartet Op. 51 Nos. 1 and 2 Quatuor Ludwig [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Feb/2009 ] Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833, the son of a double-bass player and his much older wife, a seamstress. His childhood was spent in relative poverty, and his early studies in music, for which he showed a natural aptitude, developed his... |
MALCOLM ARNOLD
Arnold: Cello Concerto / Saxophone Concerto / Fantasy for Recorder and String Quartet / etc Raphael Wallfisch (cello) John Turner (recorder) / Northern Chamber Orchestra & Manchester Sinfonia, Richard Howarth & Nicholas Ward [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Sep/2011 ] "The disc is a hands-down winner in the Naxos catalogue and slips nicely into the same rank occupied by Penny's symphonies." (MusicWeb Recording of the Month Sept 2011) |
GUSTAV MAHLER
Mahler arr. Schoenberg: Songs [Lieder] Roderick Williams (baritone) Susan Platts (mezzo-soprano) & Charles Reid (tenor) / Attacca Quartet & Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players, JoAnn Fal [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Nov/2016 ] Arnold Schoenberg founded the Society for Private Musical Performances in 1918 to perform contemporary music from 'Mahler to the present'. Mahler had been an early supporter of Schoenberg's music, and Schoenberg repaid the favour by arranging... |
EUPHONIUM MUSIC
Euphonium Music (Incls Balissat-Capriccio for Euphonium and Chamber Orchestra) Roland Froscher (euphonium) / Capella Istropolitana / Dominique Roggen [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Aug/2008 ] "Froscher is a marvellous performer on an under-appreciated instrument. His tone is dark and mellow, his technique is spotless, and his phrasing is sensitive. And there is great music to be heard here." MusicWeb |
LUIGI BOCCHERINI
Boccherini: Stabat mater / String Quartet, G. 234 / String Quintet, G. 348 Sarasa Ensemble [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Apr/2019 ] "a disc that is warmly recommended both to those who admire Boccherini as much as I do and to those who have yet to discover just what an interesting composer he is." MusicWeb recommended June 2022 |
HENRYK GORECKI
Gorecki: String Quartet No.3, Op. 67 / Sonata for 2 Violins, Op. 10 Tippett Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 21/Feb/2020 ] "I cannot recommend this recording highly enough, and have run out of superlatives" Gramophone Recording of the Month May 2020 |
HENRYK GORECKI
Górecki: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 Tippett Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Dec/2018 ] With the belated success of his Third Symphony 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs' (Naxos 8.550822), Górecki emerged in the 1990s as a composer of world stature. Between 1988 and 1995 he wrote three string quartets for the Kronos Quartet that are among his... |
ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD
Korngold: String Quartets Nos 1 - 3 Tippett Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 10/Mar/2023 ] Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote a significant body of chamber music (the Piano Trio and String Sextet are on Naxos 8.574008). His three String Quartets reflect differing periods of composition. The First marries impetuousness with enticing harmonies... |
STEFAN WOLPE
String Quartet / Second Piece for Violin Alone / Trio in 2 Parts / Oboe Quartet Toby Appel / Theodore Arm / Aleck Karis / Daniel Kennedy [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 15/Aug/2006 ] The surface of Wolpe's late music is deceptive. Herbert Brün observed that if you listen from the outside, it all sounds the same, but inside "everything is exploding. You are full of stuff". Wolpe limited himself to a relatively simple palette of... |
ROBERT SCHUMANN
The Best Of Schumann Jenö Jandó (piano), Maria Kliegel (cello), Kristin Merscher (piano), Balázs Szokolay (piano) Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kodály Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 27/Aug/2007 ] The very best of Robert Schumann compiled from the vast Naxos catalogue! |
JUDITH LANG ZAIMONT
MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Zaimont: Tale Of Abram & Isaac / Sacred Service Various Artists incls James Maddalena (baritone), Margaret Kohler (soprano), Everest String Quartet, Samuel Adler, Frances Lucey (soprano) [ Naxos American Classics / CD - released 1/May/2006 ] "This is one of the most consistently rewarding of the fascinating Milken Archive series. So much so that it leaves one wanting to hear more" MusicWeb |
ETHEL SMYTH / FREDERICK DELIUS
Smyth/Delius: String Quartets Villiers Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 14/Oct/2022 ] The String Quartet in E minor by Ethel Smyth, one of the most innovative and original figures in English music, has a masterful coherence and consistency. With eloquent writing for the viola in particular, it is both playful and reverential, and ends... |
DVORAK
String Quartets Vol. 8 - No. 3 in D major Vlach Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 1/Jun/2009 ] "Vlach magic…this must be among the world's finest quartets" (Gramophone). |
MAURICE RAVEL / GABRIEL FAURE
Ravel / Faure: String Quartets Ad Libitum Quartet [ Naxos / CD - released 20/Aug/2008 ] Rosette [highest rating] - Penguin Stereo Guide - "A new bargain disc finds a Romanian ensemble fully at home in the string quartets of Ravel and Fauré." (Performance & Sound 5 Stars). - BBC Music Magazine |