Felix Delbrueck

>On another trip to the library I got, among other things, some more
>Mozart quartets, this time by the Salomon Quartet.  This group has been
>highly praised by a number of list members.  Listening to parts of the G
>major quartet K387 that I so enjoyed last week as played by the Quatuor
>Mosaiques, I can only ask: how can this possibly be? ...
>Could it be that Bob Draper got to know his Mozart from this disc? ...

I can't remember the artists on the Mozart I listened to.  But I think the
CDs were on Nimbus.

>The QM, on the other hand, of whom I got some Haydn Quartets, are rising
>daily in my esteem.  If everyone played like this and, going one step
>further, dropped the HIP pretensions to authenticity, I'm convinced the
>use of modern string instruments would die out overnight (and if I'm not
>mistaken, in Germany the use of steel strings and continuous vibrato only
>gained full currency as late as the 1920's).

The Salomon's Haydn is top draw in my view.  They do play every repeat
though so I think one only gets two quartets per CD.

However, although I have heard only one disc by the Mosaiques it was
absolutely sensational.  I don't know about the technicalities of the
instruments but they sound like an HIP ensemble to me.  The sound quality
of the disc was superb.  Not just clarity, but the group were prefectly
placed in space.  And the acoustic is ideal.

But, I resent paying fifteen pounds ($24) for one cd.  So I'm going to wait
until these are re-issued at a sensible price.  $24 for opera maybe but for
a quartet, come on.

Bob Draper
Challenging Music's Paradigms
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