By Nereffid
29-Jul-2008

Seeing eternity  

In Messiaen's centenary year, here's a chance for me to renew acquaintance with his best-known work. And this is a wonderful performance of the Quatuor. Robert Plane's clarinet sounds perfect - a very smooth tone but never sweet, letting us see the dark beauty of the abyss. The two string players do marvelously in their long slow movements, and Benjamin Frith is a great anchor for both. I can't say whether better performances of this work are currently available, but you can't go wrong with this one. The 2 other works on the disc, both early pieces, are also fine.
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