Colin Clarke, Musicweb International
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… The young Wihan Quartet employs exquisite shading during the course of the music’s expressive wanderings. The music tapers to nothing before the energetic Scherzo (‘Sehr Schnell’) bursts upon the scene.
“The Wihan play this beautifully, the music shifting unpredictably…”
The slow movement (‘Langsam, ausdruckvoll’) includes moments of rare repose, blessed with cantabile lines dispatched with real tendresse by the players…
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The complexity of the musical surface of the first movement [of Schoenberg’s String Quartet no. 4, op. 37] is astonishing, yet it never overwhelms the Wihan Quartet…. The compositional assurance is astonishing, as are the demands made upon the performers.
“Luckily the Wihan Quartet has all of the chameleon qualities required for this music.”
The players seem to relish the rapid exchanges of the Comodo second movement just as much as they do the deeper interpretational challenges of the Largo, where control is all….
The recording is a fine one…
