Latest releases reviewed
MOZART: STRING QUARTETS IN C K465 (DISSONANCE); IN D K499 Belcea Quartet EMI Classics 344 4552 ***
The Belcea Quartet's new CD lavishes post-Beethovenian expressive emphasis on Mozart. The tone of the group's leader, Corina Belcea-Fisher, moves freely into an area of edgy, sometimes shrill and vibrato-rich intensity. She's not so much dotting her i's and crossing her t's as highlighting them with dayglo marker. If your tolerance is not unduly tried by these effects, you'll find much to enjoy in the Belcea's highly-wrought approach, which also leaves few stones unturned at the other end of the expressive spectrum. www.emiclassics.com
Michael Dervan
The Dublin Guitar Quartet's repertoire, like that of most guitar quartets, is full of arrangements. But this group seems to be interested only in contemporary music, and that's what dominates on their debut CD, specifically Kevin Volans's White Man Sleeps and part of Henryk Górecki's Quasi una Fantasia, plus a version of Redneck Manifesto's Soundscapes Over Landscapes. The group, which uses a range of non-standard guitars (with up to 11 strings), seems to be aiming for a mixture of street band funk and classical sophistication. They favour a tight rhythmic delivery as a solid background to a style that delights in colouristic and pitch shifting effects. This impressive if rather short (42 minutes) disc also includes two original pieces, Leo Brouwer's delicate Cuban Landscape with Rumba and group member Brian Bolger's in-your-face Weak. www.dublinguitarquartet.com
Michael Dervan
PLEYEL: STRING QUARTETS OP 2 Enso Quartet Naxos 8.557496 (Quartets 1-3); 8.557497 (Nos 4-6) ****
The string quartets of Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831) were praised by Mozart, who wrote, "it will be a lucky day for music if later on Pleyel should be able to replace Haydn". And Haydn, the young Pleyel's teacher, presented some of Pleyel's piano trios to a publisher as works of his own. The string quartets of Pleyel's Op 2 were published in Vienna in 1784, and these nicely judged performances by the young American Enso Quartet suggest that Haydn might not have been ashamed to have attached his name to them either. On initial acquaintance at least, the second disc - Nos 4 to 6 - seems the richer. And, yes, it was this same Ignaz Pleyel who founded the famous music publishing and instrument-making firm which published the first miniature score, built the Salle Pleyel in Paris, and is still making pianos to this day. www.naxos.com
Michael Dervan
THE ART OF BARRY TUCKWELL Barry Tuckwell (horn), plus various performers Decca 475 7463 (2 CDs) ****
Barry Tuckwell, last heard in Ireland in 1996, the year he retired from horn playing in favour of conducting, has just turned 75. Decca's birthday celebration reaches far and wide in the discography of the man who dominated the world of the horn in the 1960s and 1970s. The repertoire ranges from an early classical excavation by Knechtl, through Michael Haydn, Franz Danzi, Mozart and Beethoven to Richard Strauss (and his horn-playing father, Franz) and then beyond to the concerto Alun Hoddinott wrote for Tuckwell in 1969. Tuckwell combines soundness of musical vision and fearlessness in technical matters, and he's heard to best advantage in the confident stride of the concertos by Richard Strauss, recorded in 1966 with the LSO under István Kertesz. A second two-disc Decca compilation (475 7104) focuses solely on Mozart, the solo concertos, the Sinfonia Concertante for four wind instruments, the Horn Quintet and the Piano and Wind Quintet.www.deccaclassics.com
Michael Dervan
