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Product Description Three of the greatest opera composers from the 19th and early 20th centuries are heard on this recording in their only works for string quartet. Richard Strauss's String Quartet in A major is a youthful work which shows the classical influence of Haydn, while Puccini's Crisantemi, Three Minuets in A Major, is a brief elegy charged with great emotional intensity. Verdi's String Quartet in E minor is his only significant chamber work, written at the age of sixty when he was at the height of his fame. The Enso Quartet's GRAMMY®-nominated recording of Ginastera's complete quartets (8.570780) was acclaimed by MusicWeb International for "string quartet playing of jawdropping prowess". Review The most interesting piece on this CD is Verdi's quartet in E minor, written when the composer was 60 years old (1873) and already an enormous success. Listeners might expect Verdi to push the boundaries of the form in a way akin to what he did with his Requiem, which is far less liturgical than operatically dramatic. But not so: this is a well-structured, carefully crafted quartet that balances the four instruments with considerable skill and concludes with a finale steeped in contrapuntal writing, at which Verdi was more expert than he got credit for until he blew the critics out of the water with the final perfect fugue in his last opera, Falstaff. All this music is very well handled, with subtlety and a fine sense of style, by the Enso Quartet (Maureen Nelson and John Marcus, violins; Melissa Reardon, viola; Richard Belcher, cello), and presented in sound that is clear, pure and bright. --Mark Estren, Infodad"From the opening bars of the early Strauss String Quartet in A Major, written when the composer was 17, it is clear why the ensemble has been garnering rave reviews for their CD releases; it's beautifully rich, full-blooded and warm playing from the outset, and just perfect for the late Romantic nature of the music." --Terri Robbins, The Whole Note, December 2014