Bert Bailey replies to Eric Schissel:

>>How does the recording on Vox of the Rosza first quartet compare with the
>>recording of the same quartet on Laurel (coupled, there, with the same
>>composer's 2nd quartet and duo for cello and piano?)
>
>'Wish I knew.  I've been trying to get my hands on that disk for 2-3 years
>now.  Laurel 842, right? It's been on my wish list for so long I've got the
># memorized!  (I thought it was a Rhapsody for Violin & Cello..?) I heard
>it'd been re-released, but my special orders guy can't seem to get it.

I've got both CDs (www.everycd.com lists the Laurel as available, but you
may not want to pay the 30-buck membership fee).  I really can't compare
them.  The Vox performance I heard first, so the work rather than the
performance made the impression.  The Laurel has "the other quartet."
I haven't listened to them comparatively, in other words.

>I haven't been as impressed with most of Rozsa's chamber works, or at least
>the interpretations I've heard, as with his concertos -- the sole exception
>being this SQ.  While the Vox sound may not be DDD, this interpretation is
>good enough in my books, to say the very least.

The String Trio is amazing.  I also like his violin and piano works a
lot.  There are also some very I'm not as impressed by the works for solo
instruments written at the end of his life, but for me it's just about Bach
or nothing in this regard - well, maybe Kodaly, Hindemith, Bartok, and
Bloch as well ...  but not everything!  I've got standards, after all
(ha!).  I also like the Crisis Suite for guitar and the piano sonata.

Steve Schwartz