| Label: AVI MUSIC
Catalog: V5240
Format: CD QUATUOR DIOTIMA; PIAU; LEMIEUXWholenote Discoveries - February 2011
Berg, Webern and Schoenberg; Sandrine Piau; Marie-Nicole Lemieux; Quatuor Diotima; Naïve V 5240; On the most recent release by Quatuor Diotima the group is joined by soprano Sandrine Piau and Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux in works by Berg, Webern and Schoenberg. Piau’s impeccable vocals are expected in Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 where the third and fourth movements are settings of texts by Stefan George, but an unexpected treat is the sixth movement of Berg’s Lyric Suite where Lemieux sings the text inscribed by the composer in a miniature copy of the score sent to his “beloved” Hanna Fuchs. That only came to light thanks to Fuchs’ daughter after the death of Berg’s widow in 1976. I’m not sure if this is the first recording to include the sung text, but it is the first to come to my attention and Lemieux makes a convincing case for it. The quartet is impeccable in their interpretations of all the works, including the purely instrumental Sechs Bagatelles of Anton Webern. David Olds |
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Price: $21.98