Album 1
Paul Kletzki
String Quartet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1
String Quartet No. 2 in C minor, Op. 13
String Quartet No. 3 in D minor, Op. 23
String Quartet No. 4 (1942, unpublished)
Album 2
The Madrid Conservatory String Quartets
Fernando Remacha
String Quartet
Luis de Pablos
Sonata Romática, for string quartet
Salvador Bacarisse
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 10a
Jose Muñoz Molleda
String Quartet No. 1 in F Minor
Jesús García Leoz
String Quartet No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor
Ángel Martín Pompey
String Quartet in C Major
Julián Bautista
String Quartet No. 3
Album 1
Bacewicz String Quartet
Ludwika Maja Tomaszewska-Klimek & Hanna Drzewiecka-Borucka (violin), Róża Wilczak (viola), Małgorzata Smyczyńska-Szulc (cello)
Recorded July 2025, in the Chamber Hall of the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź
Album 2
Seikilos Quartet
Iván Gornemann and Pablo Quintanilla (violins), Adrián Vázquez (viola), Lorenzo Meseguer (cello)
Recorded 2024 and 2025 at the Auditorio de San Francisco, Ávila, Spain
Reviewed by: Rob Pennock
Reviewed: June 2026
CD No: Prelude Classics: 2 CDs and high resolution downloads from NativeDSD.com: PCL2501000 – Eudora Records: 2 SACDs, high resolution downloads from NativeDSD.com and stream: EUDSACD2602
Duration: Running time: Album-1 – 140 minutes Album-2 – 164 minutes
These releases showcase largely unknown twentieth century string quartets from two very different traditions, which in terms of their non-confrontational musicality have much in common.
Paul Kletzki is better known as a conductor whose LPs command high prices. His four String Quartets were composed between 1913 and !942, the latter recreated from sketches. Apparently this is their first complete recording. Their musical language is fairly conventional, with echoes of Bartok, Dvorak, Schoenberg and late German Romanticism that never swamp Kletzki’s own voice. These are accessible, easy to listen to works full of melody and introspection, which should be heard more often and the eloquent performances are just as good.
The DSD512 download derives from a DXD master, where the hall’s acoustic signature is perfectly captured as is the players svelte tone and their individual voices are never lost. As an added bonus there are comprehensive programme notes by Karol Furtak. Unfortunately at present it seems you can’t stream the album.
Eudora provides us with two volumes of what the booklet describes as ‘a valuable example of the recovery of Spain’s musical heritage for string quartet’ featuring works composed between 1925 and 58. Like Kletzki’s Quartets these sport loads of influences, which makes many of them sound central European as opposed to Spanish and even the two works from the 1950s are pretty conventional. Nonetheless there is some very affecting music here in a seriously neglected corner of the repertoire.
The performances are very good, but on occasion a bit more speed and attack wouldn’t have gone amiss and the booklets don’t list the tracks or players.
Sound-wise when compared with the SACDs, the DSD512 download, which derives from an unedited DSD256 original, has even more space and the instruments sound far more authentically analogue.