Verdi: Quartet; Puccini: Crisantemi; 3 Fugues, Scherzo; 3 Minuets; Tempo di Quartetto. (Guide to Records).
American Record Guide, July-August, 2003, by Elaine Fine

VERDI: Quartet;

PUCCINI: Crisantemi; 3 Fugues, Scherzo; 3 Minuets; Tempo di Quartetto

David Quartet--BIS 1006--55 minutes

Mauro Loguercio's charming notes for this recording discuss the operatic qualities that permeate Verdi's only instrumental work. Verdi probably wrote this quartet in order to get away from writing operas and concentrate on more abstract compositional concepts. The string quartet is, in a way, the antithesis of opera. It requires no narrative and is a very intimate kind of music rather than music for the public. Operas are often written for the benefit and enjoyment of the audience. Chamber music is often written for the benefit and enjoyment of the people playing it. Motives and themes can be developed freely in chamber music, while in opera there are always "strings attached", because themes and motives are usually servants to dramatic development.

The Quartetto David meets Verdi in an interesting abstract "space". Despite Loguercio's claim to focus on the operatic qualities of this work, the quartet brings out its Beethovenian qualities, particularly as found in Opus 18 and Opus 59. Verdi was a very smart man, and he chose his models well; and the Quartetto David is a very smart quartet that clearly knows its Beethoven. This is a very engaging reading.

Puccini's miniature Crisantemi is very well known both in its original version for string quartet and in an adaptation for string orchestra. The other Puccini pieces are rather obscure student works written in strict classical forms and are devoid of the stylistic earmarks of the mature Puccini. They do have their charm, and even if they don't sound like the lush and mournful Crisantemi, they show Puccini's development as a composer and his skill with counterpoint.

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