Elgar & Fauré: String Quartets

by Eusebius Quartet

Overview

Nobody comes up with the names of Edward Elgar and Gabriel Fauré when thinking of chamber music, and neither of the string quartets here by these composers is often played. Credit to the new Eusebius Quartet, who have apparently decided that the standard quartets of the repertory have been well enough explored; the group released an album of music by Erich Korngold prior to this 2025 release of Elgar's String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, and Fauré's String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121. It landed on classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2025. The Fauré quartet is an especially nice find. Fauré wrote to a friend that the string quartet "is a medium in which Beethoven was particularly active, which is enough to give all those people who are not Beethoven the jitters!" The quartet was Fauré's last work, and it seems to have been the late quartets of Beethoven that he had in mind. The work has the usual lovely Fauré melodies, but they are unusually simple here, distributed around complex textures with a great deal of counterpoint, just as in Beethoven's late quartets. It is a difficult work to find the right tone in, but the Eusebius Quartet's account is absorbing. The album ends with other late Fauré music, some of the Nine Preludes, Op. 103, arranged for quartet by Iain Farrington. The last of these, the ninth prelude of the set, is one of those miraculous Fauré melodies that linger in the mind despite (or because of) their absolute simplicity. The Elgar quartet is also a complex work, Brahmsian, growing from chordal Renaissance-like material at the beginning. The Eusebius Quartet does well here in difficult works, and one awaits further contributions from the group, in repertory familiar or strange. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	05/16/2025
Label:	Somm Recordings
UPC:	0748871070325

Tracks

1. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83~I. Allegro moderato
2. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83~II. Piacevole (poco andante)
3. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83~III. Allegro molto
4. Carissima
5. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121~I. Allegro moderato
6. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121~II. Andante
7. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 121~III. Allegro
8. Préludes, Op. 103~No. 4 in F major: Allegretto moderato
9. Préludes, Op. 103~No. 8 in C minor: Allegro
10. Préludes, Op. 103~No. 9 in E minor: Adagio

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Eusebius Quartet   Primary Artist,String Quartet

Technical Credits

Iain Farrington   Arranger
Robert Matthew-Walker   Liner Notes
Siva Oke   Recording Producer
Tom Roberts   Cover Art
Beatrice Philips   Liner Notes,Illustrations
Willem Van der Syde   Instrument Design
Ray Granlund   Booklet Editor
Venetia Jollands   Photography
Giovanni Maria del Bussetto   Instrument Design
Spiritus Sorsana   Instrument Design
Oscar Torres   Engineer
Gabriel Faure   Composer
Bertrand Galen   Instrument Design
Edward Elgar   Composer