Records International January 2013 - Castillon Quartet in A minor

[eschiss1]

Could this be the first commercial recording of Castillon's fine string quartet in A minor (not his only one, but the only one I've heard?) (There actually is another recording, made by Steve over at IMSLP here ; I recommend having a listen. It's a little faster - by two minutes - than the 33 minutes mentioned by Records International; I don't know yet what the total timings are of the latter recording. (Composed perhaps ca.1867, published probably 1900.)) Anyhow, good piece. On the new recording coupled with a better-known, not nearly well-enough-known, quartet by Saint-Saëns.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I strongly suspect you're right, Eric - as you usually are! We have a good commercial recording of the Op. 1 and Op. 7 Piano Quintet and Quartet, but, as far as I know, not one of the A minor String Quartet. Many thanks for the tip off - and straight on the wants list it goes.

It doesn't distress me too much that the quartet is coupled with the Saint-Saens. Both his late quartets are well recorded - the latest being a very fine Naxos disc. I've come to think Saint-Saens is a seriously under-rated composer, and in my view the more of him the better!

[eschiss1]

The two works have this in common, based on my experience with them, though one is estimated? to date from earlier in the composer's career, ends with a slow movement, etc. , the other (the Saint-Saëns) seems to be (I think the date is more certain- composition dates are mostly known better with him generally speaking?) - from 1899 (a year or two before the Castillon was published(!)), "typically" in four movements, dedicated to a well-known violinist, etc. - but they both seem to me mostly inward, and high in expressive charge. (Ok, ok, not _that_ unusual in minor-mode string quartets, especially Romantic minor-mode quartets from the late 19th century .)