Seiber - String Quartets nos. 1-3
Edinburgh Quartet
Dephian DCD34082

Release date March 2010

The influence of Kodaly and Hungarian folk music is evident in Matyas Seiber's first string quartet. Written in 1924 when he was 18, it is a tuneful work, fresh, spontaneous and full of energy and vitality. During the next decade Seiber spent time as a ship's musician (playing cello) on the transatlantic run before joining the staff of Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt, where he established the world's first department for the study of jazz. His second quartet was the last work he completed before migrating to England in 1934, and shows how quickly he had absorbed not only jazz influences (the middle movement Intermezzo is marked "alla Blues") but also twelve-note serial music. The outer movements recall the music of Bartok, the finale incorporating all manner of string-player special effects - pizzicato, glissandi, etc. Seiber's third quartet, the Quartetto Lirico, dates from 1951 and is a much more warm and romantic piece than its predecessor. It was dedicated to the Amadeus Quartet; you can still hear their performance on an EMI disc, the only other available recording of any Seiber quartet. The Edinburgh Quartet's playing throughout is passionate and committed; congratulations to them and to Delphian for making this music available to a wider audience.

Reviewed by Anne McAlister