The name of Alexandre Boely is familiar in the organist's world but hardly in the chamber musician's. He lived from 1785 to 1858, only quite late in his life obtaining posts as organist in Paris—and even then he was compelled to resign because his style was found too conservative and austere. He was an early French reviver of Bach; but it is to Haydn and Beethoven that his chamber music is chiefly indebted. If on hearing the music here one had to guess the composer, probably one would venture the young Mendelssohn.
The string quartets date from the mid-1820s (they were not published until 1859, after Boely's death). The A minor work has a good deal of vigour and inventiveness, only lightly touched by romantic ideas of expression; it has rich, well worked out contrapuntal developments in its outer movements, an Andante that faintly hints at the romantic genre piece with its gentle sentiment and a scherzo with some odd syncopations and a curiously hesitant trio. The G major Quartet has a classical formality to its diction and to the presentation and working-out of its ideas, akin in spirit to Haydn's Op. 77 No. 1, perhaps, and like that work it nags away at its motifs. Its Adagio, in G minor, is very fine, inward in feeling, varied in its harmony, and with a dramatic middle section; it leads directly into a graceful, rather contemplative scherzo with some gently charming ideas. There is something of high spirits about the finale, but it is not quite lightly enough composed—I wish Boely had managed to forgo this once his beloved contrapuntal development. This movement, and the scherzo of the D major Trio (which is much earlier, dating from 1808), are of the perpetuum mobile type. The Trio I found rather less arresting than the quartets, but there is considerable charm to its Allegretto slow movement.
A fascinating record, then, to anyone curious about the byways of chamber music and wanting to know what lesser men were doing while Beethoven and Schubert were writing their latest and greatest quartets. Boely was not typical: he was more serious, more conservative than most. The music is well formed and well worked out, often charming, and it gives a good deal of pleasure. The players here offer an attentive performance, direct in manner, secure in ensemble; intonation is generally dependable, but sometimes the violin tone comes out rather unvaried and slightly glaring in louder passages. The disc, however, is certainly one that the inquisitive chamber musician is likely to enjoy.'