The first disc in this two-disc set offers a pair of
Mozart string quartet recordings by Switzerland's
casalQUARTETT; they're straightforward, competent, and perhaps a bit on the restrained side. The chief attraction comes on the second disc, where the performance of the String Quartet in D minor, K. 421, is repeated, with spoken introductions, collectively designated an Annäherung, or approach, to each movement by author Urs Frauchiger. The introductions are taken from Frauchiger's book Mein Mozart (My Mozart), and they're personal impressions of the music, loosely strung together with historical detail. For U.S. listeners who remember the Adventures in Good Music broadcasts by radio personality Karl Haas, they're in something of the same vein, with imaginative rather than scholarly reconstructions of the work's setting, but Frauchiger's readings are closer. They're done movement by movement, and a score of the quartet is provided in the booklet for reference. This is intriguing if only because this kind of old-school music appreciation isn't done much anymore, and for listeners who respond to this kind of thing it may promote genuinely close listening. Recommended for German speakers.