Norbert Burgmuller was born in 1810 and died a premature death in 1836 from
drowning while in a public bath; that must be embarrassing.  To consider
Burgmuller a romantic-era composer would be very misleading.  His music,
in my opinion, is firmly in the early romantic manner, similar to Spohr
and Reicha.

Burgmuller left us four string quartets.  Three of them were written while
he was a teenager; the fourth was written in 1835.  MDG recently issued
Volume 1 which contains Burgmuller's Quartet No. 2, Op 7 in D minor and
No. 4, Op 14 in A minor.  Performing is the Mannheim String Quartet.  The
catalog number is MDG 3360993.

There's quite a difference between the two featured string quartets.  The
earlier one does not possess the wide emotional palette, melodic invention,
nor tight construction of the Opus 14; this is most apparent in the first
two movements of each quartet.  Opus 14 is fully deserving of equal status
with Spohr and Reicha string chamber works; Opus 7 is at a lower level.

Buying this cd for essentially one quartet might not be a good idea.
There's also another problem.  Although the Mannheim String Quartet
performs well, the first violin tends to have a fat and syrupy tone
which is most noticeable when it rings out above the other instruments.

Don's Conclusion:  For those interested in early romantic string chamber
works, a better way to go is to purchase one or more of the Spohr string
quartet cd's on Marco Polo and/or the L'Archibudelli recordings of Spohr
and Reicha string chamber works (period instruments) on Sony.  If you
already have those recordings, this Burgmuller cd might be rewarding.
However, it certainly is not an essential purchase nor do I strongly
recommend it.

Don Satz
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