Joseph Horovitz CD reviews

**** BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE - JUNE 2008
Strongly and beautifully crafted works, full of an almost Tippett-like 'joie de vivre'. The 'Couperin Fantasia' is a coruscating treat. Excellent performances, too.

JOSEPH HOROVITZ: Fantasia on a Theme of Couperin*; Oboe Quartet; String Quartets Nos 4 & 5 Carducci Quartet and Ensemble*
Nicholas Daniel, Oboe
Carducci Classics CSQ 6482 57'02"

We have become used, during the last decade or so, to symphony orchestras having their own record label, such organisations issuing live concerts or studio recordings themselves, but I don't recall many string quartets, if any, apart from the present ensemble starting a record label of their own. Having heard an earlier disc from the Carducci Quartet and been impressed thereby, I give the highest praise to this outstanding new release of chamber music by Joseph Horovitz. It is good news that this fine and very gifted composer has been receiving recently a too-long-delayed general recognition of his art, and this exceptionally well played and beautifully recorded disc of what the composer has said are some of his more 'serious' works will further draw attention to the range and depth of his music. The music dates from between 1953 and 1969, and I find it quite extraordinary that a masterly score such as the Fantasia on a Theme of Couperin should have had to wait so long for a recording; dating from 1953, it has perhaps been sidelined, quite unfairly, by Tippett's Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli from the same period, also for String Ensemble, but Joseph Horovitz's work can certainly stand comparison with the more well known Tippett score. The three other works are all equally impressive, especially the very fine String Quartets; real string quartet writing, this, although I would have preferred the final note in the Fourth Quartet to have been slightly more elongated, to bring this work to a more definite conclusion. Some may feel, as I do, that the Oboe Quartet pays homage to the composer's adopted country. It is without question a work of genuine imaginative character, perhaps 'lighter' in expression, but no less serious in compositional skill. This is a very impressive record; the playing is excellent, the recording is of high quality and the music is by a genuine and most admirable creative figure.
Robert Matthew-Walker
www.musicalopinion.com
May-June Issue 2008