This Naxos disc, Franck: String Quartet in D major, String Quintet in F minor, revisits a combination of experienced and beloved artists that served Naxos well on a previous outing in chamber works of Gabriel Fauré, Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz, and the Fine Arts Quartet. In pedigree -- though not in membership at the time of recording -- the Fine Arts' legacy goes back to 1946, and Ortiz's since at least 1977 when she made her first recordings for EMI under the aegis of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Although it already has the ...
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This Naxos disc, Franck: String Quartet in D major, String Quintet in F minor, revisits a combination of experienced and beloved artists that served Naxos well on a previous outing in chamber works of Gabriel Fauré, Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz, and the Fine Arts Quartet. In pedigree -- though not in membership at the time of recording -- the Fine Arts' legacy goes back to 1946, and Ortiz's since at least 1977 when she made her first recordings for EMI under the aegis of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Although it already has the Franck Piano Quintet in its catalog, paired with Chausson's C minor String Quartet, for some reason Naxos has never essayed Franck's one string quartet, written at the very end of his life and counting as a major French contribution to nineteenth century chamber literature. This outing makes a very effective case for both works; while Ortiz and the Fine Arts are far from being the first to combine these two strongly compatible Franck pieces on disc, they concentrate on keeping the...
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