The quartet by Gottfried von Einem (b.1918) has more substance, blending neo-classical and more neo-romantic idioms in a way that anticipates the kind of full-blown, angst-ridden tussle with tonal quotation particularly favoured today by Alfred Schnittke. This quartet has its rambling episodes, and the performance seems overemphatic, as can happen when good players seek to do justice to a not-utterly-familiar score. But the piece bubbles with character and is well laid out for the medium.

Stravinsky was never at home with the warm homogeneity of the string quartet. Yet his Concertino of 1920 is a work of historic importance for the clear way in which it marks the connection between his early Russian style and the kind of neo-classicism that occupied him thereafter. Even the Symphony in Three Movements can be heard in embryonic form in the Concertino. All the Stravinsky performances are well-judged by the Alban Berg Quartet, and the sound is natural and immediate throughout.

-- Gramophone [6/1992]