Artist: Brodsky Quartet
Title: Britten: Complete String Quartets
Year Of Release: 2015
Label: Challenge Classics
Genre: Classical
Quality: FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 01:37:33
Total Size: 428

Tracklist:

CD 1
1. Three Divertimenti: March (1936) 03:52
2. Three Divertimenti: Waltz (1936) 03:03
3. Three Divertimenti: Burlesque (1936) 03:26
4. String Quartet No. 1, Op. 25 in D Major: Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo (1941) 09:08
5. String Quartet No. 1, Op. 25 in D Major: Allegretto con slancio (1941) 02:57
6. String Quartet No. 1, Op. 25 in D Major: Andante calmo (1941) 10:49
7. String Quartet No. 1, Op. 25 in D Major: Molto vivace (1941) 03:51

CD 2
1. String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36: I. Allegro calmo, senza rigore (1945) 08:39
2. String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36: II. Vivace (1945) 03:49
3. String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36: III. Chacony. Sostenuto (1945) 19:15
4. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94: I. Duets. With Moderate Movement (1975) 06:31
5. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94: II. Ostinato. Very Fast (1975) 03:16
6. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94: III. Solo. Very Calm (1975) 05:53
7. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94: IV. Burlesque. Fast con fuoco (1975) 02:17
8. String Quartet No. 3, Op. 94: V. Recitative and Passacaglia (La Serenissima). Slow – Slowly Moving (1975) 10:47

This double album joins a pair of releases by the Brodsky Quartet, both recorded in 2001. This ensemble is second to none when it comes to abstract quartet repertory of the 20th century, and there's really little to complain of here other than the misleading title. Early in his career, Britten wrote five other pieces for string quartet, including two titled as string quartets, in addition to the four works recorded here, and the Three Divertimenti, which are included, had a troubled history. That said, the Brodsky's performances are consistently strong, and Challenge Classics' engineering work in Suffolk's Snape Maltings Concert Hall has held up well after 15 years. The Brodsky's forte is perhaps the sober contrapuntal work in the death-haunted String Quartet No. 3 of 1975, with its magnificent final chaconne swan song. But they also excel in movements where Britten the dramatist is putting his 1940s operatic breakthroughs into a chamber music context. Sample the magical first movement of the String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, with its points-of-light texture that places considerable demands on the performers. Those are met throughout, and this is both a sympathetic and steely-accurate reading of Britten's major works in the string quartet medium.