The Franz Schuberts bring an expressionist intensity to the great slow movement the occasional roughness underlining the humanity of the music – the directness of the utterance would be quite wrong if it was all projected with silky-sheened easy sonority – this is superb music making on any level. Quite why this music has not grabbed the public’s imagination I can’t imagine; perhaps it is simply too confessional. All in all a fine set performed in a very particular way by this splendid Viennese quartet. Nimbus’ packaging neatly puts the two discs in a single slim-line jewel case. Both of David Brown’s liner notes from the original separate releases are retained to good and informative effect.
Nick Barnard Musicweb-international.com
