Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence; Arensky: Quartet in A minor

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Poetry and art expressed in music! This British ensemble bring to the soul in sound, the picture on the Cd cover, to life in lush tones, shimmering strings and in a wondrous celebration of joyous music making. No greater ensemble could have been chosen to bring to our hearing Arensky, an almost unknown composer save for his magical trio. The Tchaikovsky is a known item but the Arensky gem of a string quartet is new to most of us. Wonderful disk! I realize that chamber music for many is an acquired taste, but the music heard in this hour of playing is more than acquired; you have already acquired a taste for beautiful music and this cd is a sheer delight. Don't pass it up, or at least listen to it.

This is perhaps the best recording which has been made to date of Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, excepting the orchestral recordings of this work, of which the ones by the Orchestra d'Auvergne and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta are two prime examples.

Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence is by terms wonderfully capricious, soaringly melodic, and stunningly brilliant, and all of that is brought out in this wonderful recording by this British ensemble. The cohesiveness of the Raphael Ensemble is wonderful, as is the naturalness, flow, and technical competence with which they bring out overarching structure and melodic charm of this favorite Tchaikovsky piece.

Arensky's lesser known Quartet No. 2 in A minor is scored for an interesting chamber group: one violin, one viola, and two cellos. From the arresting chords of the first movement to the singing theme of the second movement, this is, like the Tchaikovsky piece, Russian romanticism at its best: darkly melodic and heartwarming at the same time. I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed when I heard the rest of this piece, but I attribute that more to my unfamiliarity with the piece than to anything else. Do try to listen to the entire piece before you buy this, but otherwise highly recommended for both works!