For me, the most welcoming feature of this release is Challenge Classics' return to HRAudio after an absence of almost one and a half years, with a superb SACD engineered by Bert van der Wolf’s NorthStar Recording. And that’s not all: The content is even better. Two Italian String Quartets that no one has ever heard on record before.

Enterprising musicians and ditto labels are constantly on the lookout for neglected material to generate sales in a fading field of re, re, re, re, productions of the same standard repertoire. There is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary. In doing so, some fine discoveries have resurfaced. But by the same token, let’s be honest: some were probably chosen and recorded merely for the sake of it. And after a couple of listenings, one understands why they have landed in oblivion.

However, to the list of real, worthwhile discoveries, this present release can and, by all means, should be added at the top end. Why? The best way is to listen for yourself. I was immediately taken. Neither of the two composers were known to me. The internet encyclopaedia didn’t even mention that Stefano Golinelli, in his time a noteworthy pianist, had ever written a String Quartet, let alone three (Op.100), as we read in the liner notes. His chamber oeuvre is largely devoted to the instrument on which he harvested acclaim. Vincenzo Antonio Petrali, an organist of repute, is of more or less equal anonymity; his String Quartet in G major was only recently discovered. A find of prime choice.

The almost insurmountable problem for both composers was that they happened to live in a period when there was only one musical form that monopolised the entire Italian scene: Opera! A similar problem that Central European composers who lived in the shadow of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven had to deal with. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that if you can’t beat them, join them, but in my view, it is evident that both took inspiration from these Northern masters and their successors, like Mendelssohn and Schumann, albeit with a romantic Italian slant. A comprehensive overview of their lives and compositional activities is provided in the detailed liner notes by Matteo Massori, an all-round Italian keyboard player (including the organ) and a competent musicologist.

So much for the background information. Did I save the best for last? Yes! Next to the quality of the compositional style, the big surprise goes to its interpreters: the Quartetto Altemps. Never heard of them in my part of the world. What a shame! All four musicians held top positions in internationally renowned period bands, but that doesn’t automatically make an excellent Quartet. It may take years to get that elusive unity. The liner notes (nor their website, for that matter) mention when they started playing together, but it sounds as though it has been forever. Their interplay is phenomenal.

Equipped with what the best Italian period instrument makers had to offer, their playing excels in naturalness and warmth, displaying, at the same time, a kind of virtuosity combined with sheer musicianship, far removed from quartets seeking to impress by extremes of dynamics and tempi. In short, the Quartetto Altemps seek the lyrical, harmonious inside rather than playing an empty, glittery outside of the score. A wonderful and most gratifying experience for my traditional ears!

When, some time ago, Donizetti’s sixteen String Quartets appeared for the first time on record, the question was posed: why the Quartetto Italiano had not done so before. With this release, however, such a question is superfluous. Stefano Barneschi (violin), Angelo Calvo (violin), Ernest Braucher (viola), and Marco Testori (cello) cannot be easily bettered in this kind of repertoire.

We can only hope that this latest Challenge Classics Super Audio release is the beginning of a continued relationship and that the sound engineering will continue to be entrusted to Bert van der Wolf. World Premiere Recordings of this calibre are worth the extra finance. Prospective buyers should not hesitate!

Blangy-le-Château, Normandy, France.

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