Wolf-Ferrari: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 23

Album review

So, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari… his works don't often turn up in these pages, and while sometimes we might get stuck into one of his operas, his chamber music has been completely overlooked. That's an injustice: just look, for example at this Third (and final) String Quartet from 1940, written in the composer's later years, a mere eight years before his death. Too Germanic for Italy to welcome him with entirely open arms; too Italian for the sometimes-slightly-obtuse German-speaking world, Wolf-Ferrari wound up alternating between the two countries: a decent portion of his operas were performed in German, in Germany; but he also tried his hand at some very Italian verism — with great success, it must be said. The First World War, which pitched his two homelands against each other was shattering to Wolf-Ferrari... This quartet, although written after the Second World War, doesn't follow in the footsteps made in the previous half-century by modernists from Debussy to Stravinski by way of dodecaphonism and all the possible, imaginable "isms"; Wolf-Ferrari writes tonal music which is carefully researched, melodic (with a transalpine influence) and counter-punctual (with borrowings from across the Rhine): his work defies classification, and so is overlooked. In short, this very pure recording from the Sonare Quartet gives audiences the chance to uncover a neglected side of this composer's work. © SM/Qobuz