PACM069 - New Music Quartet plays Mendelssohn and Boccherini

Both of these recordings are excellent examples of how well the better record companies had adapted to and adopted the new technologies of the 1950s. Although the true advent of stereo was still to come, the rapid development of high quality tape and vinyl recording and reproduction helped to drive other advances in high fidelity recording equipment and techniques, with the net result being clear for anyone to hear.

The tendency was still to a certain dryness in studio recordings, especially in the field of chamber music - quite possibly a result of years of similar practise and expectations dating back to the age of acoustic recordings, which simply couldn't capture any easily audible room acoustics. Thus throughout the 78rpm age and into the early years of vinyl we still find quite dry and - to modern ears - slightly brittle or sterile recordings.

The judicious use of a modern convolution reverberation, reproducing exactly the acoustics of specific concert halls and venues, can greatly help in the enjoyment and appreciation of recordings such as this - the idea is not to swamp the instruments in echo, but rather to allow the string to resound more fully and in a more realistically rounded style as one would expect in a live performance environment.

This approach has worked particularly well here - take a listen to our Boccherini sample to hear what I mean. Despite the lack of precise stereo positioning (it remains, of course, a mono recording), the sound is full, clear and simultaneously contemporary and yet 55 years old. Ultimately it achieves - I trust - the goal of any restoration, which is to bring the listener closer to the music and performance, removing as much as possible in the way of sonic obstacles to enjoyment.

But that's all the boring technical stuff. What you need to know is that this is a truly superb quartet, playing at their height just before going their separate ways, and is absolutely not to be missed. Close to two full hours of uninterrupted musical pleasure awaits you!

The New Music Quartet

Contemporary newspaper notices from 1955

Four top-raking virtuosi, each a successful concert artist in his own right, form the New Music Quartet which will be heard in the Asolo Theatre of the Ringling Museum of Art on Friday evening, Feb. 25.

Walter Trampler, who plays the viola, was a member of the famed Strub Quartet, which made annual tours of the European continent. Immediately after coming to the United States in 1939, he became an instructor in the music department at Rollins College. After service in the army, he became first violist of the New York City Opera and City Center Symphony, appearing twice as soloist with that orchestra.

Broadus Erle and Matthew Raimondi, violinists, and David Soyer, cellist, received theit education in major music schools of this country.

Soyer has achieved wide recognition for his concert performances throughout the country. He has had successful recitals at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall, New York, appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and made numerous chamber music and solo recordings.

Raimondi, who is a native of New York, studied with Adolph Betti, first violinist of the Flonzaley Quartet, had a scholarship at the Juilliard School of Music, and did graduate work at Columbia University in musicology.

Erle was born in Chicago, and at the age of three began to study the violin. By the time he was 10 years old he had become a scholarship student at the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia. Afterward he studied with Alexander Bloch, now director of the Florida West Coast Symphony, who was, he says, his most important teacher. Erle has been concertmaster of the Ballet Theater and the Columbia Recording orchestras.

All seats for the concert are reserved, and tickets now are on sale in the library of the Ringling Museum.

- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida, Tuesday, February 22, 1955

...Never faltering in tonal qualities, never deviated from a finesse that proved a delight to the audience ... it was as charming and polished a concert as one might find during a winter in Manhattan. The whole spirit of the Quartet is one of freshness and zest, as though the playing were as much a pleasure for its members as for the listeners...

- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Saturday, February 26, 1955

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