Credits:

Schmelzer, J.H.

Description:

This is the first recording for the cpo label by the Salzburg-based "Constanze Quartet". Drezeke was a composer active in the early days of German Romanticism, who left behind eight operas as well as numerous symphonies, vocal works, and chamber music in a variety of genres. At the age of 17, he heard Wagner's "Lohengrin" and was so impressed that he studied the works of his contemporaries Brahms and Liszt and developed his own style. He also showed great talent in the use of counterpoint, and his vocal and chamber works are exquisite, rigorously structured, and brilliantly written. These two string quartets were written in the 1880s, and are brilliantly crafted with a tradition and harmony reminiscent of Beethoven's, but with a progressive spirit. Naxos Japan