This excellent disc is the first from German label Marc Aurel Edition I’ve had the pleasure to review in several years, since they merged with another German label, Raum Klang, and it’s obvious from listening that the combined effort of the two still turns out an exceptional product. Brahms’ youthful String Sextet No. 1 was, by all accounts, a resounding success, and helped cement Brahms’ reputation as a master of the Romantic repertory. Violinist Adolph Busch was born during Brahms’ lifetime (1891), and despite being renowned as a concert violinist, was a prolific composer, with seventy opus-numbered works to his credit, and an almost equal cross-section of unnumbered symphonies, concertos and chamber works. Both of the works presented here date from approximately each composer’s twenty-seventh year, and share a great deal in common stylistically.
The members of the Koln String Sextet have long and distinguished musical pedigrees, and they play these most German of compositions with exceptional virtuosity. The multichannel SACD was recorded at the German Radio Studios in Koln, and the recording captures a stage-level representation of the studio’s acoustic, which includes a significant amount of ambience – not at all the often dry acoustic associated with studio recordings. All I have to do is close my eyes to place each of the players within the very realistic soundfield. Very highly recommended – hopefully, there’s much more to come from this fruitful partnership. This is chamber music-making at its very best!
– Tom Gibbs
