Johannes Brahms: Quartets, Quintets, Sextets
Verdi Quartett (and guests) 4 CDs (2018, Hänssler)
Picked this set up from the big Performing Arts branch here in the city. And though I had all the browsing stacks seemingly to myself the current city-wide short-of-staff closings/abbreviated hours gave the deserted building an ominous chill. I actually missed dodging people in the aisles and eyeing the choices of music in other people's clutches. This box set leaped out at me though it isn't the approach I expected for a collection of Brahms chamber pieces (the cover is hardly
Brahmsian) but a welcome one: the Verdi Quartett is restrained, yet poignant. At times I do miss some the effusiveness from more famous virtuoso musicians but there is something to be said for temperance. It's a faithful if not the most passionate rendering of the maestro. Somehow the measured interpreations fit the time.
Full YouTube playlist.