Brahms: String Quartet Op. 51 No. 2; Dessoff: String Quartet Op. 7 (2007)

This is the third and final disc of the Mandelring Quartet's survey of the complete string quartets of Johannes Brahms. It is the third disc because the German group has ingeniously coupled each of Brahms' three quartets with works written by his friends and contemporaries. Thus the first volume coupled Brahms' C minor Quartet with the A minor Quartet of Friedrich Gernsheim, the second volume coupled Brahms' B flat major Quartet with the G minor Quartet of Heinrich von Herzogenberg, and this third volume couples Brahms' A ... Read More

This is the third and final disc of the Mandelring Quartet's survey of the complete string quartets of Johannes Brahms. It is the third disc because the German group has ingeniously coupled each of Brahms' three quartets with works written by his friends and contemporaries. Thus the first volume coupled Brahms' C minor Quartet with the A minor Quartet of Friedrich Gernsheim, the second volume coupled Brahms' B flat major Quartet with the G minor Quartet of Heinrich von Herzogenberg, and this third volume couples Brahms' A minor Quartet with the F major Quartet of Felix Otto Dessoff.Aside from time, place, and acquaintance, two things bind the works on these discs: a thoroughly conservative harmonic style and, more importantly, a complete command of compositional technique. And, as before, those qualities are found not only inBrahms' quartet but in Dessoff's as well. Both works are in four movements; both works are full of memorable themes and both works are supremely well put together. Though Brahms'... Read Less