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A.E.M Grétry: Sei Quartetti (2005)
These "sei quartetti" of Belgian-born composer André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry, later one of the preeminent opera composers of the last days of the old French regime, bear an Italian title because they were written in his youth, while he was studying in Italy with Mozart's teacher Padre Martini, among others. They're quite a mixed bag. Grétry became a backer of Rousseau's campaign to exalt pure, natural Italianate melody over the moribund strictures generated by French poetry and prose. But at this stage he concludes two of these quartets with fugues. Other movements are sprightly and melodic, with transparent textures of the sort that Rousseau would have praised; Grétry is at his best here with aria-like miniatures such as the "C minor Larghetto" of the Quartetto II in E flat major. All the quartets are in three movements except for the third, which has a minuet interpolated into the first of two movements. The movement sequences don't have much logic to them, and the pieces lack unity -- indeed, Grétry... Hide synopsis
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