Customer Reviews

Moeran: String Quartets / String Trio

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It's hard to imagine that these pieces have fairly languished unheard--- at least on American shores. A shame... until now. Those familiar with Moeran's contemporary, Frank Bridge, will no doubt spot his similar and subtle use of the British folk idiom throughout these works.

The Eb Quartet is an early two movement work beautifully wrought and flavored by a very tangible English countryside. Delightful!

The A Minor Quartet is a three movement affair that shows Moeran's remarkable compositional growth: he takes his innately pastoral writing to broader and deeper places. The second movement Andante is especially touching. (Amazing that this music was written in 1921 and, yet, its dominant characteristic retains a penchant for the romantic--- certainly Elgar was more "modern" at this time, interestingly enough.)

The String Trio in G of 1931, in five movements, is an inventive, melodious and utterly delightful work. Again, special mention should be made of the beguiling Adagio... and the Andante grazioso finale.

More well known for his orchestral works, we should thank Naxos for bringing these lovely chamber pieces to CD, in such fine performances by the Maggini Quartet and in a full, warm sound.

[Running time: 59:23]

The quartets of Ernest Moeran are immensely likable pieces of music: melodic, flowing, substantial, quintessentially British in a twentieth century way. And of course the Maggini Quartet, who specialize in British repertory, do a wonderful job with this music. Still, the Maggini's have some stiff competition here: The Vanbrugh Quartet, whose idiomatic survey of the quartets on ASV has as its discmates Moeran's Fantasy Quartet and Piano Trio, fine chamber music that listeners will want to have: Moeran: Chamber Music. On the other hand the Maggini's Naxos disc includes Moeran's string trio. The question is, which disc to buy - the Vanbrugh on ASV or the Maggini on Naxos? The answer for me is both, despite the duplication in music. The Fantasy Quartet, Piano Trio and String trio are all well worth having and the only way to get them is to buy both discs. If one wants to plunk for only one disc, however, I would go with the Vanbrugh's on ASV which contains 20 more minutes of highly delectable music. If price is a consideration, then the Maggini is the way to go - Amazon resellers currently offer discs at less than $4, a great bargain.

Highly recommended!

Voici un autre compositeur anglais qui gagne à être découvert.
vous découvrirez le côté un peu pastoral de l'époque.
Une belle acquisition à bas prix.