Franck, C: String Quartet in D major

“The Fine Arts Quartet… are at their very best in both slow movements, with Christina Ortiz matching their ebb and flow perfectly in the Quintet.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009 ****

“Ortiz and her colleagues realise all of Franck's pent-up feeling in a performance of a special musical refinement and commitment… The Fine Arts Quartet, too, are entirely at home in the very different scope of the String Quartet, relishing both the music's contrapuntal intricacy and its full-blown romanticism.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“very fine accounts of both masterpieces. They have ardour and finesse in equal measure.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“This is a wonderfully played pairing of perhaps the two greatest of all French string quartets. It is a measure of the outstanding quality of the Dante Quartet that both works are projected as vividly and immediately as they are. There's such a passionate involvement about their playing, such belief in the music's outstanding qualities, which not only makes light of the structural challenges of the Franck, but treats the rarefied world of the Faure as if it were the most naturally expressive thing imaginable. It's an outstanding disc.” The Guardian, 1st August 2008

“No dithering with the Dante Quartet in their Hyperion debut: they plunge into whatever they play with passion, energy and communal spirit. These two late quartets from Fauré and Franck make a canny coupling. The Franck dazzles with its boisterous invention; the Fauré cools brows with its thoughtful restraint. To both the players bring the same expertise and vast colour range. And the recording’s superb. If you like the repertoire, don’t hesitate.” The Times, 1st August 2008 ****

“The Dante Quartet are superb advocates, especially in the Franck, where they are without peer among modern accounts.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 *****

“The Dante is one of those rare quartets where you can sense the personalities of the individual players as much as appreciate the common bond that ties their interpretations together. The players cut through some of the outward seriousness of Franck's D major Quartet to find the warmth within, as well as the wit in its Mendelssohnian scherzo. Fauré's late E minor Quartet is tackled with equal attention to expressive detail and subtleties of tone colour.” The Telegraph, 16th August 2008

“…from the opening bars of the Franck we feel the intensity of the Dante's commitment. In the Fauré there's a nice ebb and flow of feeling as the music progresses… It's certainly playing of great accomplishment.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008

“Two swansongs, and in each case it's the composer's only string quartet. But how different these works are – the Franck overflowing with invention, drama and passion, while Fauré's sparer textures and unchanging motion leave an impression of reflective melancholy. Roger Nichols's excellent notes point out, though, how the music of both composers has the quality of intériorité, of intimacy and self-examination.
This is a notably well-recorded disc; we're placed, it seems, right in the middle of the music-making, and from the opening bars of the Franck we feel the intensity of the Dante's commitment.
You may consider that their intense approach, with powerful vibrato and bow pressure applied even to the voices filling out the harmony, tends to become rather wearing. The Dante performance is still a fine one, by turns vigorous and tender, and with impressive variety of expression.
In the Fauré there's a nice ebb and flow of feeling as the music progresses – in a leisurely way in the Andante, more purposeful in the outer movements. Others may have come closer to the heart of this elusive music, but you may prefer the Dante's more earthy approach.
It's certainly playing of great accomplishment.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Franck's Quartet is highly ambitious in its scale...this magnificent performance by the Fitzwilliam Quartet, superbly triumphing over the technical demands with totally dedicated, passionately convincing playing, completely silences any reservations.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“The catalogue is hardly overflowing with accounts of the seating Piano Quintet, but, even if they were as commonplace as discs of Vivaldi's Four Seasons… this stunning new performance from Artur Pizarro and the Petersen Quartet would surely sit top of the pile. Pizzaro fits into the tight-knit ensemble perfectly, not attempting (like some pianists) to turn the work into a mini-piano concerto. ...the String Quartet: although more reflective, it is another sublime, impassioned masterpiece... I recently praised the Dante Quartet's marvellous version (on Hyperion) as being 'without peer among modern accounts' but the Petersons are, if anything, even better. With chamber playing of this standard Franck could not want for better advocates.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 *****

“Here's an enticing assemblage of Franck's three greatest chamber works, all splendidly recorded and offering stylish, powerfully communicative performances. The Ysaÿe version of the Quartet is superb – warm and friendly, with a greater range of tone colour and, in the less strenuous passages, more relaxed, a performance that fully realises the music's grandeur and intensity, and clearly articulating its complex forms.
In the Sonata, Guillaume Sutre plays many of the quieter passages with extreme delicacy; in a work that's often very strongly projected, he reminds us that at many points it's an intimately reflective work. And the passionate music, too, is given full measure. Rogéacute; is a master at developing the grand sonority of Franck's piano writing, with beautifully balanced chords and arpeggios. Sutre, however, sometimes sounds a little colourless, the varied tonal palette he commands as a quartet leader momentarily deserting him.
The Quintet performance is magnificent. For this richly scored, darkly coloured work, players and engineers have combined to do full justice to the weight and depth of the textures while completely avoiding the drab sound that sometimes comes with the combination of piano and string quartet. And in all three works, the musicians command all the flexibility this highly expressive music needs, alongside the subtlety and discipline that leaves us feeling we're hearing the music rather than just one interpretation of it.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The Quintet performance is magnificent. …in all three works, the musicians command all the flexibility this highly expressive music needs, alongside the subtlety and discipline that leaves us feeling we're hearing the music rather than just one interpretation of it.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007

“played with ardour by the pianist David Lively and the Quatuor Malibran, and the broad vistas they open to Franck's range and development in the realms of chamber music make this set particularly fascinating” Gramophone Magazine, May 2013