In The South - Brodsky Quartet (2013)

The Brodsky Quartet here turns to the sunshine, bright colours, and deep-set passions of the South, performing Latin-inspired music for string quartet by composers who all possessed a strong connection to the ‘South’, whether it was the Mediterranean or South America.

Paganini’s Capricci Nos 6 and 24 need no introduction. They are among the most published and reviewed virtuoso pieces ever composed, and have been frequently arranged over the last two hundred years, with each new reading allowing us to discover Paganini’s art afresh. This version has been arranged by the violinist Paul Cassidy, a long-standing member of the Brodsky Quartet.

We have the chance to hear chamber works by two further Italian composers, who would always be known primarily for their massive achievements in opera. In fact, the sad melodies of Puccini’s Crisantemi would later be used in the tragic fourth act of the opera Manon Lescaut. The Quartetto in E minor was the only string quartet Verdi ever wrote, and he himself insisted on presenting it as a mere trifle, stating that it was composed ‘in idle moments’ before the premiere of Aida. This Quartet divided opinion. Whereas some reviewers recognised the technical difficulties of the work, others thought Verdi’s Italian temperament inappropriate to instrumental music.

The inspiration to La oración del torero (The Toreador’s Prayer) came to Turina during a Spanish bullfight, during which he watched as a bullfighter received the prayerful Sacrament of Holy Unction, while all around a feverish excitement over the forthcoming fight was overtaking the crowd. The work itself displays elements of French impressionism, combined with strong evocations from the Spanish bullfighting arena.

Four, for Tango, written in 1988 for the Kronos Quartet, is a prime example of Piazzolla’s own style of ‘Nuevo Tango’; this new form of tango became popular around the world, and was generated from combining Argentine folklore with so-called ‘art music’. Also on this disc is Hugo Wolf’s ‘Italian’ Serenade, a work equally full of captivating rhythms, harmonic warmth, and dancing themes.

Composer: Hugo Wolf, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, Joaquin Turina, …
Orchestra/Ensemble: Brodsky String Quartet

Reviews: Themed programs, and their often-resulting albums, are all the rage these days, and the Brodsky Quartet, Daniel Rowland and Ivor Belton, violins; Paul Cassidy, viola; and Jacqueline Thomas, cello; has been about that business almost since its organization in 1972. Having played everything from Beethoven to Björk, this may be the original “crossover” ensemble. And after 40 years, it has only changed two members (Rowland and Cassidy)! This is not a crossover program, but one made up of those shorter pieces that often get left out of the schedule.


Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade (1887) is more often heard today in Wolf’s 1892 arrangement for string orchestra, but it was originally for string quartet, as here, and I think Wolf’s original instinct was correct. The quartet version, especially as performed here, has a fleeting lightness to it that a larger body of strings cannot always bring off.


I may be the only person who cannot hear the opening of Puccini’s string quartet, Crisantemi (1890), without thinking of Paul McCartney’s hit Yesterday , which probably says a lot about my own yesterday. It is the only work for string quartet by Puccini that has stayed in the repertory, but its brevity, like that of Wolf’s serenade, has made it more of a filler on a program than a main event.


Verdi’s Quartetto (1873) on the other hand, his only work in this medium, is a substantial piece, if not much programmed, though there are over 25 different recordings of it available. It has always struck me as un-Verdian, if we mean by that his gift of long and expressive melodies. Here, he seems to be thinking differently about what instruments do. Indeed, the last movement scherzo and fugue seems far from the opera house. Verdi claimed he thought little of the piece, but the work itself suggests otherwise.


Like Wolf’s serenade, Joaquín Turina’s La oración del torero (1925) also has another life as an orchestral piece. This is a smoky, impressionistic piece in which Turina imagines the prayer of a toreador just before he steps into the arena. Astor Piazzolla’s short piece Four, for Tango (1988), was written for the Kronos Quartet and sounds like much Piazzolla, spiky Latin rhythms and up-to-date playing techniques. The notes tell us about Nicolò Paganini’s caprices for solo violin, but nothing about violist Paul Cassidy’s arrangement of two of them for string quartet. The sixth shimmers, almost chorale-like, and makes a calm contrast to the energetic Piazzolla tango preceding it on the disc, and keeps us in suspense for the slowly expanding fires of the famous 24th. These are generally conservative arrangements, quite respectful of the harmonic implications of the original line.


These are good performances, especially of the Verdi quartet which anchors the disc. The Turina prayer is a good surprise and the Piazzolla piece is great fun.