The Berwald quartets suffer a wholly unaccountable neglect and hover on the edges of the repertory, seldom venturing into our concert-halls. All three could easily be accommodated on one CD, though at present the best-known, the E flat of 1849, is represented in the catalogue solely by its pioneering Kyndel Quartet recording (now part of a five-CD Capriccio set) from the days of shellac. The G minor Quartet is remarkable for its period (it dates from 1818 when Berwald had just turned 22) and is in some ways the most interesting of the three. As no rival version is currently available the 1979 Chilingirian account has the field to itself. The performance is straightforward, unfussy and faithful, and very well recorded.
Johan Wikmanson (1753-1800) is even more neglected, though more understandably so. He was the son of a silk-dyer, a pupil of Joseph Martin Kraus and the Abbe Vogler, and as he did not enjoy royal patronage, spent 30 years of his working life in the service of the Royal Lottery. He was an eminent organist, translated Tartini's Traite des agrements de la musique into Swedish and in the 1790s became Director of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music's conservatory. His three surviving string quartets are all modelled on Haydn and achieved publication thanks to the latter's acceptance of their dedication. The Chilingirians omit the first movement repeats of No. 2 (justifiably I think) and play the work with commitment and in the case of the slow movement a certain charm, though they do not always observe every dynamic nuance given in the 1970 Critical Edition by Bonie Hammar and Erling Lomnas. A welcome reissue despite the full-price tag.'