Edinburgh Quartet

 
 
 
A GOOD place to start with Mátyás Seiber's music is the three string quartets he wrote at significant moments in his life. The Quartet No 1 – his Op 1, no less – dates from his student years under Kodaly in 1920s Budapest; the Second Quartet followed a decade later and represents a heady independence of style and freedom of spirit; the last stems from the last few years of his life. All are performed on this robust disc by the Edinburgh Quartet, who extract from each a superb individuality of character, from the Bartók (even Ravel) influences of the early quartet, and the harsher didacticism of the serially charged middle one, to the more luxurious maturity and softening of language of the last. A complete and compelling revelation.