String Quartets – No 1 in G minor, Op 27; No 2 in F, CW146

Coupled with Schumann String Quartet No 1 in A minor, Op 41 No 1

Petersen Quartet

Capriccio CAP10 476 (75‘ · DDD). Buy from Amazon

String Quartet No 1

Coupled with Mendelssohn String Quartet No 2 in A minor, Op 13

Shanghai Quartet 

Delos DE3153 (64‘ · DDD). Buy from Amazon

Since Grieg owed much to Schumann, coupling their quartets seems a good idea. These G minor and A minor Quartets were written when the composers were in their thirties, although Grieg was a few years older. Yet it’s his work that sounds more youthfully passionate, while the Schumann is a rather self-conscious homage to his friend Mendelssohn and classical models. The Petersens invest the Grieg G minor Quartet with gravitas and are skilful in linking the disparate sections of its structure. Their recording has a natural balance and an impressively wide dynamic rang; it also copes well with Grieg’s forceful, semi-orchestral string-writing. The whole performance has vigour and tenderness in good proportion, and a truly Scandinavian feeling. The unfinished F major Quartet is another sensitive performance and the work sounds no more incomplete than Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. The Schumann is no less enjoyable; the artists are fully inside his idiom and make a consistently beautiful and meaningful sound.

The Shanghai Quartet’s brightly lit account of the Mendelssohn suggests a rich store of interpretative potential. Theirs is a sizzling, multi-coloured performance. The Grieg coupling is, if anything, even finer, with an Allegro molto first movement that truly is ed agitato, a warming Romanze and a superbly characterised Intermezzo. It’s richly recorded.

← Grieg