The notion of the encore sits somewhat uneasily with the traditional string quartet repertoire; but judiciously handled it may offer the listener a pleasurable release from the intense concentration which that repertoire demands. This is in essence what the portentous German insert-note takes 20 times as long to say. Happily Michael Thomas, the Brodsky Quartet's first violinist, has no such pretensions (he is responsible for all but one of the transcriptions, and the disc ends with an enjoyable rumba of his own making). In his informal essay he stresses that these are fun pieces and that they come in handy especially for tours and concerts for youngsters. It is in this spirit that they should be heard and enjoyed.
By and large I think the guitar-twanging Spanish items come off best, with the French ones close behind. You have to admire the skill that goes into bringing off the five-note parallel chords in ''La fille aux cheveux de lin'' so smoothly; and it takes chutzpah to keep Ravel's ''Laideronette'' in the original key of F sharp major, harmonics and all. Elsewhere there are things which work less well, or which perhaps need genuine post-recital adrenalin in order to carry full conviction. To mention the Kronos Quartet here is not to compare like with like (although the marketing of the Brodskys has obviously been going in that direction). All the same, an injection of transatlantic panache might have lifted this programme from the enjoyable to the irresistible.'