STRAD MAGAZINE November 2003

Hoffmeister String Quartets op. 14 nos, 1-3 - NAXOS 8.555952

It is as a result of their first prize in the 1999 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition that the members of the Aviv Quartet were invited to make this recording of music by Franz Anton Hoffmeister. Formed in 1997, the players are equally divided between Russian and Israeli nationality, the quartet having studied at London's Royal Academy of Music, followed by tuition from the Emerson, Juilliard and Alban Berg quartets.

I doubt that they would ever have played a note of Hoffmeister until offered this recording. Though long forgotten, Hoffmeister was a major music publisher and a prolific composer who worked at much the same time as Mozart. Included in his catalogue of works is a considerable amount of chamber music, favourably compared to other famous composers of his time and which drew kind words from Schubert. The three op. 14 quartets were composed around 1790, their thematic material so immediately attractive that their neglect at the expense of early Haydn is indefensible.

The quartets' particular characteristic is the use of viola and cello, which Hoffmeister gives greater importance than his contemporaries, allowing for scoring that is often more imaginative than that of early Haydn or Mozart. It is a factor that allows us to enjoy each player of an uncommonly fine group of musicians, their leader Sergey Ostrovsky right in the centre of every note, even when Hoffmeister has him chasing around the instrument. The sound quality is immaculate and in terms of sheer uncomplicated enjoyment, I most strongly commend the disc to you. DAVID DENTON

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