Mozart 0 Mozart String Quartets — No 14 in G, K387; No 19 in C, 'Dissonance', K465. Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K546

Quartet Sine Nomine (Patrick Genet, Francois Gottraux vns Nicolas Pache vu Marc Jaermann ye) Claves ® 50 9903 (65 minutes: DDD)

A well-planned programme that, on balance, stands up pretty well to the competition

K387/K465 - selected comparisons, coupled as abort':

Budapest Qt (I/55R) (SONY) SM2K47129

K387 - selected comparison: Quatuor Mosaiques (AUV1) E8746

K465 - selected comparison:

Quatuor Mosainues (8/92) (A Uri) E8748

These are most enjoyable performances, vividly recorded. Technically very polished, the Sine Nomine Quartet from Switzerland plays with great vitality, a good sense of style and a constant awareness that classical music needs to be shaped phrase by phrase. This is a carefully planned programme, with the Adagio and Fugue placed alongside a quartet with a fugal finale (K387) and a quartet (K365) beginning with a slow introduction that, like K465's Adagio, is in a solemn, mysterious C minor. The string sound for K546's baroque-style opening is very modern, but the tempo (not too slow) and shaping are exemplary, with the remote harmonic excursions sensitively handled.

The two quartets face stiff competition. Mozart's Allegros tend to be more cantabile and legato than those of his contemporaries: turning back to the 1950s Budapest recordings, one is struck by its full, singing tone in the louder passages — by its side the Sine Nomine sometimes sounds rather too forceful. On the other hand, present-day listeners may find the Budapest (on two discs) lacking in tonal variety. The Quatuor Mosaiques, which would be my first recommendation for these quartets, achieves the widest range of expression in movements such as K465's Andante, with beautiful changes of articulation, emphasis and tone colour. It does sometimes allow the music to drag though, whereas the Sine Nomine always seems to choose the right speeds, with flowing Andantes, and an opening Allegro to K387 that really sounds vivace assai as indicated by Mozart. Duncan Druce