Capriccio

Fokkens: Capriccio Variations; Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op. 20/2; Mendelssohn: Four pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81;

R Strauss: Capriccio, Op. 85; Weinberg: Capriccio, Op. 11; Ysaÿe: Paganini Variations

Gérard Caussé (viola), Yan Levionnois (cello); Quatuor Capriccio Orchid Classics ORC100094 74:38 mins In keeping with the eponymous ensemble, this intriguing recital explores the capriccio genre. But it’s hardly amusing and capricious. It combines Haydn and Mendelssohn, two heavyweight quartet composers, with lesserknown figures like the living composer Robert Fokkens, the 20th-century composer Mieczys aw Weinberg and Eugène Ysaÿe, the ‘King of the Violin’, and closes with Richard Strauss.

The recital opens with an elegant, characterful rendition of Haydn’s Quartet Op. 20 No. 2. The darkly dramatic ‘Capriccio’ movement is rendered with crisp bowing and sparing vibrato before melting into an irresistible melody. The clean approach particularly suits the playfully virtuosic banter of the closing fugal movement.

Fokkens’s 2017 Capriccio Variations open eerily, like a squeaky rocking chair, its texture increasingly punctured by shouts and cries. Again, it’s not playful, but rather subversive. Unfortunately, it outshines Ysaÿe’s variations on Paganini’s famous 24th caprice, which feels over-long, despite this translucent and tender performance.

More interesting is Weinberg’s mocking, sarcastic waltz-capriccio, imaginatively and spikily rendered. But again, Mendelssohn’s lovely

Op. 81 pieces sound tame after it. The recital closes with Strauss’s weirdly searching Sextet from his 1940s opera Capriccio, a meditation on the power of words and music, steeped in late-romantic nostalgia. This ensemble favours the austere, slightly reedy sound of a generation raised with an awareness of historically-informed practice.

But the playing is regularly warmed by vibrato – an almost old-fashioned narrow-bore vibrato which I found intensely moving, and the sound is crystal clear. Natasha Loges PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★