Richard Flury Chamber Music, Vol. 2 - Quartets of Quality
Toccata Classics has made a major investment in the music of Richard Flury. So far they've released three volumes of orchestral music, three operas, and now a second volume of strings quartets. I hope it's paying off for the label. Because it certainly is for the listener.
Flury was a Swiss composer operating in relative obscurity throughout his career. His main source of income was as a violinist and a conductor. As this release (and the others) show, he was also a skillful and imaginative composer.
This release features his second and third string quartets. Both received their world recording premieres with this album. Flury remained a musical conservative throughout his life. These two quartets are tonal, and both use a standard four-movement form. And both reward the listener time and again.
Flury wrote his second quartet in 1929. The first movement is carried along by a flowing sixteen-note pattern. Sumptuous melodies float over it. The second movement features rich harmonies and a plaintive melody shared by the four instruments.
The good-natured scherzo is followed by an intensely serious finale. Flury lists the quartet as being in E minor/major. That key ambiguity makes harmonic context essential in understanding the work.
The String Quartet No. 3 in C major was completed in 1938. Flury's compositional skill shows development. The melodies are more expansive. There's a greater use of chromaticism. This heightens the music's intensity. Flury played the violin and viola professionally. His experience informs his quartet writing.
The music sounds idiomatic to the string instruments and to the quartet as an ensemble. The Colla Parte Quartet performs these works with empathy. And also with great skill. The melodies sing, and the emotional content is always clear. And the musicians sound like they truly enjoy playing these works.
Highly recommended -- along with volume one. I anticipate the remaining volumes will be of the same high quality.
Richard Flury: Chamber Music, Volume Two
String Quartets Nos. 2 and 3
Colla Parte Quartet
