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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine Faure--and a Great Franck Quartet,
By
This review is from: Faure/Franck: String Quartets (Audio CD)
It's probably an embarras de richesse of the first order, but this disc represents my third recording of the Franck String Quartet. Obviously, it's a favorite of mine, but three? Well, somehow intuitively, I supposed the Dante Quartet's version would be special, and it does manage to pull well ahead of the Julliard's, which now seems rather creaky to me, and the Kocian Quartet's, which runs the Dante a respectable but still distant second. Like the Kocian Quartet (on Praga, if you can find it), the Dante offers a comparative rarity. While the Kocian plays the Lalo Quartet, a work from the beginning of that composer's career, the Dante offers the Faure Quartet, a product of the last year of the composer's long life.The Franck is a vast work, with an especially lengthy first movement. As the fine notes to the Dante disc tell us, this is because of Franck's unusual design, which embraces elements of both song form and sonata form. The A section of the "song"--a melody of great plaintiveness and longing--envelopes the sonata section, which is passionate and tumultuous in the manner of Franck's Piano Quintet of a few years earlier. Only in the playful scherzo second movement does Franck allow himself to smile a bit before the almost tragic slow movement restores a darker mood. As in Beethoven's Ninth, the finale reprises the important themes of the previous movements, but in reverse order. And like Beethoven, Franck is able to dismiss the earlier restlessness and longing in a movement of joyful vigor, with a dashing final uprush in D major that recalls the life-affirming close of Franck's D Minor Symphony. It's a powerful musical canvas, and the only reason it isn't heard more often, I'm sure, is the great difficulties in terms of stamina that it poses for any quartet. Luckily, in recording, this is not so much a problem, and the Dante in any event give a performance of great energy, and songfulness, from beginning to end. The Faure, too, receives a wonderfully sympathetic reading, though the Quartet is a somewhat strange discfellow for the Franck. Intimate and aphoristic where the Franck is big in gesture and sprawling in design, the Faure is harder yet to bring off. While even the Dante can't convince me that it's a great piece of music, they make the very best case for it I can imagine. Add one of Hyperion's most forceful yet atmospheric sound recordings, and you have a triumphant bit of music making.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, Fine, and Excellent from any Perspective...,
By Sébastien Melmoth (Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Faure/Franck: String Quartets (Audio CD)
.Hyperion and Dante Quartet: Well done! This is a notably excellent issue from every perspective: repertoire; realization; recording; duration; notes; cover-art, etc. ... Beginning with the cover-art: Pissarro's Neo-Impressionistic Sunset at Eragny (1890), nicely reproduced on the interior of the clear plastic jewel-box. The very British Dante Quartet's reading here is nothing less than absolutely superb. Its timings of these pieces are not disparate from other readings (+/- <:01); and since its performance here is quite unique and piquant, this suggests an original gestalt-perspective. The sonics are quite excellent; the recorded sound, very fine. It's very nice to have paired the too-little heard Quartets of Franck and Fauré: a nice balance of Gallic/Latinate, pungent/saline, tenebrous/translucent. An historical theorem: ~Franck (b. 1822); Bruckner (b. 1824). ~Both were organists firstly; pianists, secondly; harmoniumists, thirdly. ~Both were piously Catholic. ~Both were ardent Wagnerians. ~Both were nearly 50 years of age before bursting into creative flame. ~Bruckner visited Paris in April 1869, and performed on the organ of la Notre Dame with Franck in attendance; they had some probable musical communication after the concert and some further days thereafter. =Conclusion: with the groundwork laid, the meeting of Anton Bruckner and César Franck, and the musical discussions they experienced together--even so brief a time, somehow ignited them both to works of musical art in very similar patterns. Withal, the Dante's realization of Franck's Quartet here is extremely and evidently Brucknerian in sound and ethos. . See too: Franck: String Quartet; Piano Quintet; Sonata for piano and violin Franck: String Quartet; Violin Sonata Franck and Lalo: String Quartets Franck: Sonata for violin in A; String quartet in D Franck, Chausson: String Quartets . Amadeus Quartet Plays Bruckner, Smetana, Verdi Bruckner: String Quintet F major/String Quartet C minor Bruckner: String Quintet; Intermezzo; Strauss: Prelude to Capriccio Bruckner: String Quintet; Schmidt: Piano Quintet [Australia] Bruckner: Streichquintett F-dur .
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Violating all the rules for reviews,
This review is from: Faure/Franck: String Quartets (Audio CD)
Unfortunately there is only one review for this album. And, it is quite negative. The listener is entitled to his opinion and may be quite right. I don't know because I have not heard more than a couple of snippets...But I wanted to post a counter review because of the glowing review on NPR yesterday and other very positive reviews on the web from other knowledgeable sources. I am going to buy and will update the review myself. From all the sources, I conclude that the Dante Quartet takes some chances with the material. That is great in a landscape where often there is an "accepted" version and everything else is a copy of that performance. Perhaps it works or perhaps it doesn't, but know that there are more opinions out there...
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