Milhaud's admirers will need no reminder that his output was as uneven as it was enormous and that an issue such as this may be curate's egg. The first two of his 18 string quartets date from 1912 and 1915 respectively and therefore pre-date his keen responses to Latin-American idioms and jazz. No. 1, dedicated to the memory of Cezanne, rather reflects his native Provence; here is a fresh and simple style, owing something to Ravel but cruder: try the F minor tune over chunky chords (at 4'14'' in the first movement) for a sample. As usual with Milhaud, few ideas are memorable, and for that reason, if for no other, the work is rarely played. This skilful and well-recorded performance does its best to tempt one back for further hearings, but why on earth did Milhaud write two such similar movements as his second and third?
The Second Quartet is cast in five movements and is somewhat more purposeful, but the quality of the material is so patchy that one can't help recalling the late Christopher Palmer's perceptive comment in Grove that, while most of Milhaud's works contain something of value, one needs to ''sift through vast quantities of chaff in quest of the isolated grain of wheat''. The short booklet-note is devoted to the composer's output as a whole and these two quartets receive an inadequate three sentences between them. Though its super-bargain price is attractive, musically this disc is for the already converted.'