The finest work on this record is the late Sextet, which has often been suggested as an influence on Brahms's sextets. In the opening Allegro moderato comparisons are far from odious: this is music of a lyrical warmth and an easy mastery that can well stand beside Brahms, and there is a certain Brahmsian gait in the progress of the Scherzo with its pacing pizzicato bass. But the slow movement is too slender beside music of this quality; and the sectional finale, with its ingenious but somewhat factitious integrations of the Scherzo, does not really crown the work. Nevertheless, it is an attractive piece of writing, attractively played here.
The groups separate for the Double Quartet, which really gives one quartet a concertante role and the other humbler ripieno status. L'Archibudelli are not always as lucid as they might be in the dashing runs and flourishes of this demonstrative music, which begins by taking a figure very similar to the opening of Mozart's Haffner Symphony and giving it vigorous but not really very dynamic treatment. They are more at ease with the lesser-known G major Quintet, a fresh and lively piece, coloured by an extra viola, that falls easily on the ear. The violin writing has the familiar Spohr 'brilliance' that can become an end in itself, but the pleasing sound of two violas (Spohr must have cast half an ear at Mozart's quintets, surely) helps to ensure that this, in Clive Brown's words (Louis Spohr: CUP: 1984), ''is certainly not at the expense of melodic, harmonic or textural interest''. The recordings are sensibly adjusted to do full justice to the demands of each work.'