String Quartets 1 & 3

Tomas Breton's distinguished career as an opera composer and leading figure in Madrid's musical life at the turn of the 20th century has tended to overshadow the significant contribution he made to Spanish chamber music. He remained true to the historic roots of the string quartet genre- his First String Quartet being a tribute to the Viennese tradition in it's Classical poise. The Third String Quartet exudes Mendelssohnian inspiration in it's first movement with overtly Spanish idiom, the Allegro no mucho third movement also having been turned into a version for piano trio as the Scherzo andalou. This is the first of two albums of the complete string quartets.