String Quartets, Op. 15, 1 & 3 - CD

Attention, you hunters of reminiscences! is the message at the end of this album. Indeed, Johann Anton Andre concludes his three-part quartet collection Opus 15 with an Allegro molto vivace, the refrain of which is not so far away from the main theme of the finale of Ludwig van Beethoven's last violin sonata. But anyone who might think that this industrious junior manager of the famous Offenbach publishing house had not shielded himself from outside influences would be mistaken. Andre's trilogy appeared a full decade before Beethoven's Opus 96 - honi soit qui mal y pense... Overall, this encounter with the quartet composer Andre is a most delightful experience. Admittedly, he is classically orthodox, writing minuets instead of the emerging scherzos and keeping his development sections strictly in check. Yet he still surprises the listener with harmonic and melodic caprices both great and small. These make his scores a considerable pleasure. Even the 'interludes' are something special. Two Poissons d'Avril ('April Fools' Jokes'), in which each part follows it's own time signature, later join together to create a full-blown fugue. That's no mean feat