Richard Flury: Chamber Music, Volume One

The exploration of the music of the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967) on Toccata Classics now turns to his chamber output, with this first recording of his String Quartets Nos. 1 and 4. Flury was himself a gifted violinist, and these works – written for personal pleasure and for musician friends – were composed with an intimate familiarity with the medium. In the fourteen years between these two quartets, Flury’s musical language consolidated, from the early foray into mild modernism heard in No. 1 into the rich, late-Romantic aesthetic of No. 4.

Colla Parte Quartet
Georg Jacobi and Susanna Holliger, violins
Friedemann Jähnig, viola
Eva Simmen, cello

Richard Flury: Chamber Music, Volume Two

The exploration of the music of the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967) on Toccata Classics continues with this first recording of two more of his seven string quartets. Flury was himself a gifted violinist, and these works – written for personal pleasure and for musician friends – observe the classic definition of the string quartet as a conversation between four equal partners, with Flury’s many years of practical music-making producing quartet-textures that are thoroughly idiomatic, even masterly. Both works speak a rich late-Romantic language similar to that of composers such as Korngold, Schmidt and Zemlinsky and encompass a gratifying range of emotions, from touching introspection to bucolic cheer.

Colla Parte Quartet
Georg Jacobi and Susanna Holliger, violins
Friedemann Jähnig, viola
Eva Simmen, cello

Marc’Antonio Ingegneri: Missa Laudate pueri Dominum

The Cremonese composer Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (c. 1535/36–92) is chiefly remembered as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi while, for well nigh 500 years, his own achievements were left to sit in the shadows. This pioneering recording reveals Ingegneri to have been one of the masters of his age, writing music of breathtaking richness and beauty: the polychoral works heard here combine learned, intricate counterpoint with the kind of sheer sonic thrill that brings a shiver of physical excitement.

Choir of Girton College, Cambridge
Historic Brass of the Guildhall School and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Jeremy West, leader
James Mitchell and Wayne Weaver, organ

Gareth Wilson, director

First recordings

Ottorino Respighi: L’Opera Per Pianoforte Solo

di Potito Pedarra Scrive Lorenzo Arruga presentando alcune “liriche più famose [di Respighi]: una volta le ho persino accompagnate in un piccolo concerto, accettando a… 

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Mario Lavista: Complete String Quartets

The influences on the work of Mario Lavista (b. 1943), Mexico's leading contemporary composer, range from mediaeval, religious and folk music to modernism. His music has a powerful sense of atmosphere and colour — the Second String Quartet, Reflejos de la noche, is played entirely on harmonics — and a vigorous rhythmic drive reminiscent of the quartet-writing of Shostakovich.

Cuarteto Latinoamericano, string quartet