Customer Reviews

2 String Quartets / Fantasy Quartet / Piano Trio

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ernest Moeran is best known for his brilliant Sinfonietta, and Symphony in G minor; but as the four compositions on this disc demonstrate, he was a master in the genre of chamber music as well. His string quartets, performed by the Vanbrugh Quartet, are full of good melodies - in fact, it takes only one listen to get hooked. The Fantasy Quartet is an inventive piece for oboe & strings, which like the string quartets, is pastoral in nature reflecting the English countryside. The disc is rounded out by a fine Piano Trio performed by The Joachim Piano Trio. The whole program flows beautifully - I found it had a meditative quality that makes it especially conducive to late-night listening.

In short, this is an outstanding disc performed by top-notch musicians, recorded in excellent sound and packed with highly listenable music (77 minutes) that lovers of chamber music, especially 20th century British genre, will want to have.

The trio is the best work here. The quartets have their moments but are certainly not first rate quartets. The oboe fantasy piece starts out good and has good moments but goes on too long to hold my admittedly limited attention. Bax writes similar chamber pieces that are in my opinion of higher consistent quality. The sound quality on this recording is excellent.