Crisantemi: Italian String Quartets
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Crisantemi [6:00]
3 Minuets [9:07]
Scherzo [0:58]
Quartet Movement [7:55]
Luigi CHERUBINI (1760-1842)
String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major [33.06]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
String Quartet in E minor [21.24]
Raphael Quartet (Puccini)
Britten Quartet
rec. Holland, 1986 (Puccini, live); Henry Wood Hall, London, 1990
ALTO ALC1427 [78.46]
This is a most welcome compendium, not only for lovers of the quartet, but for those who enjoy these composers, demonstrating another side to their talent. At Alto prices, the disc is a genuine bargain.
I suppose most music lovers have blind spots around composers and works that somehow do not resonate. It took me half a century to appreciate Brahms’
Ein Deutsches Requiem, and I suspect I may not have another 50 years before I can rouse much affection for
Puccini's operas; but I have always made an exception for Crisantemi, that lovely miniature, and it is good to hear it here. Puccini wrote it quickly, in a single night in 1893 after the death of a friend, using material from Manon Lascaut. The
Three Minuets are also charming, drawing on themes from the same opera. The
Scherzo is a student work, less than a minute in duration, perhaps better known in its subsequent arrangement for orchestra. The eight-minute
Allegro moderato is the only surviving movement of the Quartet in D major, from the same years, and is very attractive, and certainly worth more than an occasional outing. The live recording by the Raphael Quartet lacks nothing in commitment or warmth, and I detected no intrusive external noises.
Cherubini’s String Quartet No. 1, from 1814, in London, has always been the most popular of his six, and it is easy to hear why. In the conventional four movements, with a delightful
Larghetto (to be played sans lenteur) in second place, it has both dramatic contrasts and energy. The writing for first violin is noticeably dominant, so the piece has elements of the concerto, rather than the conversation of equals of the Viennese school.
Verdi’s single quartet dates from 1872, and Verdi himself treated it as having no great importance. Yet its interest is much greater than the curiosity of being his only piece of chamber music. It owes something to Mendelssohn, and while not a genre-changing work, it has many charms of its own, and it will give great pleasure. The Britten Quartet (no longer extant) give fine performances. They clearly believe in the music, and one senses the affection they have for both this and the Cherubini.
Michael Wilkinson
