The potential buyer of this disc may well ask what in the world an orchestral quartet might be, and worse still, the booklet contains little in the way of enlightenment. Annotator and music editor Allan Badley explains that these energetic string works were published as suitable for either orchestral or quartet performance, but doesn't explain how the original publication designated the music. What does he mean when he writes that "only two of the quartets are specifically designated as 'orchestral' quartets"? Did the ...
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The potential buyer of this disc may well ask what in the world an orchestral quartet might be, and worse still, the booklet contains little in the way of enlightenment. Annotator and music editor Allan Badley explains that these energetic string works were published as suitable for either orchestral or quartet performance, but doesn't explain how the original publication designated the music. What does he mean when he writes that "only two of the quartets are specifically designated as 'orchestral' quartets"? Did the publication read "Quatuors pour l'orchestre"? We'll never know, but the performance by a moderate-sized string orchestra is effective. Whatever forces Carl Stamitz may have had in mind, he was here thinking musically in terms of the sound of the large and virtuosic Mannheim court orchestra for which he wrote many of his better-known symphonies. The music is festooned with examples of the famed "Mannheim rocket" figure and other effects that would lose a lot of their oomph if played by a...
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