Intimate Voices (Grieg/Nielsen/Sibelius);

Both Grieg and Sibelius composed only one string quartet; along with these, this recording features a brief work by Carl Nielsen entitled "At the Bier of a Young Artist." The Nielsen was originally a more elaborately scored work, but the Emersons have successfully reduced it. It's a fine study in dark, sentimental Romanticism. The Grieg is an easier-going piece than one might imagine given its minor key tonality, with plenty of melodies, a lovely dance in the second movement and a livelier one in the finale. The Emersons play it crisply, perhaps purposely avoiding its gloom. The D minor Sibelius Quartet is a joyless piece, anxious when it isn't disturbingly dark, and it is played beautifully, with proper gravity, by the Quartet. A handsome disc. --Robert Levine