Verdi: String Quartet in E Minor / Puccini: Crisantemi / Zandonai: String Quartet in G Major

Album review

Italian composers' contributions to the string quartet literature have been slight, arguably because of their antipathy toward the Austro-Germanic tradition, but most assuredly because of their greater preoccupations and achievements in the field of opera. Whatever mixed feelings they held, Verdi, Puccini, and Zandonai nevertheless tried their hands at quartets or quartet movements, and their efforts are as respectable as most other "outsider" attempts. What matters more than their nationality, though, is their misunderstanding of what effective quartet writing entails (balanced voices, boldly differentiated parts, open textures, varied timbres) and these composers often miss the marks that Beethoven and Schubert consistently hit. Verdi's String Quartet in E minor has some good repartee and interesting textures, particularly in the fast movements; but overall, the writing is too homophonic to be idiomatic. Puccini's Crisantemi, for all its lovely melancholy, is essentially a song for string quartet, without much thought of individual parts. Zandonai's String Quartet in G major is the most successful in terms of quartet techniques, though its material is bland and the work's musical value is almost negligible, despite its extraordinary length. Quartetto d'Archi di Venezia turns in pleasant performances, especially in Zandonai's quartet, and Dynamic offers fine sound quality, so this disc is worth at least one hearing.
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