Sirmen: 6 String Quartets

Album review

Colourful and enchanting quartets. The Lombardini Quartet is not only named after the Venetian violin virtuoso and composer Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen, but now also recorded her versatile Sei quartetti, Op. 3 from 1769. Lombardini Sirmen was one of the few women to realise a career as a professional musician in the 18th century and, according to sources, the first woman to compose string quartets, at a time when this genre was still extremely young and in the formal experimental stage. The interpreter's highest credo is always the speaking play and the uncovering of all affects in the music, of the finest emotions, which often change so quickly in the quartets - a veritable rollercoaster of feelings.

All the quartets are in two movements and enchant with their variety of colours and richness of form: "Like a walk through a blossoming spring meadow: It is worthwhile to turn one's gaze very carefully to the many beauties that nature offers to the left and right. We felt the same way about Lombardini's music: many little flowers by the wayside to discover, some large and recognisable at first glance, some very small and easy to overlook. It is fragile music that reveals a rich inner life on closer inspection," says Elisabeth Wiesbauer of the Lombardini Quartet. © CPO