There are enough new performances of American music by British and continental European groups to constitute a vogue, and this superb release by Britain's Brodsky Quartet makes a fine place to start with the trend in several respects. First there's a reading of the Dvorák String Quartet No. 12, Op. 96 ("American"), that could stand on its own as a reason for purchase. The Brodsky runs counter to type with this performance, which offers a relaxed, singing version of the music that accords well with the great performances of the Cello Concerto in B minor. Many quartets push the music and thus bring out its rhythmic structure, but that doesn't suffer in this version emphasizing the African-American-influenced melodic content that the composer himself pointed to in the work.

Founded in Montreal in 1993, Quasar is a saxophone quartet devoted mainly to new music, and particularly to the creation and promotion of Canadian works. This disc presents an exciting selection of works, most of which were commissioned and premiered by Quasar.

Dvorák's popular Piano Quartet No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 87, and Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, have received numerous performances by Czech ensembles, as well as plenty of foreigners who have attained fluency in the received Czech style (or not). This fine release by Britain's Schubert Ensemble takes the step of defining a non-Czech way of playing Dvorák, with fresh and persuasive results.

In the last years of his life, Franck created three chamber music masterpieces: the Violin Sonata, the Piano Quintet, and this String Quartet. Only the Violin Sonata has achieved a full measure of popularity, and this string quartet is virtually unknown, largely because of its ambitious length and difficulty in performance. It's a terrific piece of music employing the composer's trademark cyclical form: the movements share tunes, and the finale acts as a sort of summing up of the entire work. While challenging to the performers, there's nothing difficult about it for the listener, and this performance is just about the only show in town. Fortunately, it's a very good one. –David Hurwitz

In all three quartets the Borodin play with an easy authority and what seems to be perfect style. There are no obvious interpretative quirks, there's nothing showy to get between the music and the listener, and it is evident that these musicians are thoroughly immersed in the authentic Russian tradition of playing Tchaikovsky's music. Technically and tonally they are first rate, and they combine well with the two excellent extra players in Souvenir de Florence.

The internationally celebrated Vermeer Quartet, known for its extensive, major-label recordings of standard repertoire, has turned to its hometown record label, Chicago’s Cedille Records, for a program of important yet surprisingly neglected Tchaikovsky works.

This disc, another in the Maggini Quartet's series of recordings of string quartets by twentieth century English composers for Naxos, brings together the three quartets of Lennox Berkeley. And as in the group's previous recordings of quartets by Bridge, Arnold, and Rawsthorne, the music proves as excellent as it is unexpected. Berkeley's quartets date from 1935, 1941, and 1970, and each sounds like a work of its time yet still characteristic of the composer.

Louis Spohr's inventive streak is evident in his creation of the double quartet, a novel form that opened the string octet to new textural, antiphonal, and contrapuntal possibilities. However, like many of Spohr's other chamber experiments, his strategies occasionally led him into unintended compositional difficulties, and his results were most successful when he put aesthetic considerations over cleverness. Spohr's showy writing for the first violin, flamboyant and widespread in the Double Quartet No. 1, caused unevenness in the ensemble's balance and exposed the bareness of the other parts.

While these recordings by the Hungarian Quartet contain perfectly acceptable performances and adequately idiomatic interpretations of Schubert's later chamber music for string quartet and quintet, they contain nothing more than that. In the late '50s and early '60s, the Hungarian Quartet was a widely respected group playing in the central European tradition of plumy intonation, sugary sonorities, sometimes scrappy ensemble, and often sentimental interpretations.

One of Canada’s most sought-after flautists, Claire Guimond proudly introduces her version of Mozart’s four flute quartets. A most interesting mixture of dreamyness and humour is presented, on what is destined to become a truly important recording. An impeccably engineered product and extremely well performed – totally imbued by the warmth and softeness of Claire Guimond’s baroque flute which has become a real trademark for this outstanding performer.

Dwarfing even the late Beethoven quartets in sheer length, Schubert's final String Quartet in G major, D. 887, clocks in at nearly an hour of performance time. This ambitious length made it difficult to appreciate in Schubert's Vienna and can even be a test of focus for modern audiences if anything but a superb performance is put forward. Fortunately for listeners of this Onyx album, the Kuss Quartet produces just such a performance. The approach to Schubert offers far more drive, intensity, and grit than the vast majority of recordings available.

The debut recording by the award-winning Ensemble Meridiana. A scintillating programme of Telemann leading the listener on a musical jouney through Europe in the Baroque period. On this beautiful recording, Ensemble Meridiana explores a variety of Georg Philipp Telemann's chamber music. The pieces chosen highlight the mastery of Telemann's 'mixed taste' writing style and are a perfect display of Baroque influences from France, Germany, Italy and Poland.

Mendelssohn's three piano quartets were written in childhood. The second, the Piano Quartet in F minor, Opus 2, was written in 1823, a year after the first, and dedicated to his teacher Zelter. The strings start the first movement, before the piano adds its own more extended comment. It is the piano that introduces the A flat major second subject, based on the descending scale. The piano part gives an appearance of virtuosity, with complications of hand-crossing to impress an audience. The strings, violin, viola and then cello, lead back, as the central development comes to an end, to the recapitulation and final more rapid coda.

Carl Stamitz’s Clarinet Quartets Op. 8 and Op. 19 are amongst the earliest compositions for clarinet and string trio and document the increasing significance of the clarinet in the second half of the 18th century. These quartets demonstrate Stamitz’s profound understanding of the instrument and also allow an illuminating insight into his idiom. With his sensitive interpretations, Arthur Campbell emphasises the cantabile quality of the clarinet, which dominates all the quartets recorded on this SACD.

Richter on the road in Tours France, with no studio in sight, and with a great Russian string quartet in a live performance. This enterprise in thoroughly inspired. Good tempi throughout and nothing drags. There is great interplay between Richter and the Borodins. They milk the lyrical content of the first movement and build the finale to its electrifying finale.