GRAMOPHONE:
The ongoing Auvidis Gerhard series has not yet reached the string quartets, so it is good to have this Metier release from the Kreutzer Quartet. It will be difficult to beat, with first-class playing and admirable recording, and at mid-price the short playing time should not be an issue. The two quartets offer complementary aspects of this exceptionally rewarding composer. In No.1 (1950-55) we hear the adept Schoenberg pupil, working on a large scale and bringing well established musical genres into the post-tonal world, although in the slow movement there are hints of the more progressive Gerhard who was waiting in the wings. In the finale, the scale is perhaps too large, and a certain sense of diffuseness can't be wholly suppressed, but the impression from the work as a whole is of a composer confident at thinking on a 'symphonic' scale, and expert at creating productive tensions between traditional formal frameworks and a highly-wrought, contemporary musical discourse.

The Second Quartet (1960-62) is more radical, more concentrated, showing that dialogues between active and reflective musics could be made fresher and more appealing in the absence of those history-laden Schoenbergian backgrounds. Though he aspired to employing all-embracing compositional systems, Gerhard was never their prisoner, and the skill with which he uses repetition for dramatic effect in this work shows that he was far from rejecting all aspects of traditional musical rhetoric. It is a primary virtue of these performances that they project the vivid character of the music with such sensitivity. Very strongly recommended.
Arnold Whittal

CLASSIC CD:
It is remarkable that these seem to be the first recordings of these very strong works by the Catalan composer who combined the influence of his teacher Schoenberg with folk sources, and who escaped from the Franco regime to settle in Britain. Before the Gerhard centenary of 1996 there was virtually nothing by him in the catalogue, and the recordings and performances that resulted have done something to raise him to something like his rightful place among major twentieth-century composers. Peter Sheppard Skæved of the Kreutzer Quartet laments the lack of a performing tradition for the quartets. This seems to be the Schoenberg problem magnified several times - there isn't much of a performing tradition or recorded legacy for his string quartets either, at least compared to Bartók or Shostakovich.

Roberto Gerhard's most distinctive music appeared in his last decade - a late efflorescence echoing Janácek's - when he had transcended Schoenberg's influence and the others which that involved. His quartet output of only two mature works straddles that divide. The first, premiered in 1956, uses Gerhard's personal 12-note technique with dense thematic working. The second, from 1960-62, is in a continuous single movement which abandons themes in favour of textures. For this listener at least its impact is more immediate, the Kreutzer's interpretation totally compelling. Textures are often slow-moving and quiet, but the final section raise the excitement level with a conclusion over a pulsating ostinato. Metier are again to be commended for their exploration of neglected repertoire... Powerful Performances of astonishingly neglected quartets. Performance ××××× Sound ×××××
Andy Hamilton