Classical; NEW RELEASES

Zemlinsky String Quartets Nos 3 & 4

Artis Quartet Wien (Nimbus)

Following their exceptional release of Zemlinsky's first two quartets, the Artis Quartet complete the series with the composer's more restrained though no less eloquent last opuses in the form. The neo-classical Third Quartet is offset by the suite-like Fourth, inspired by Alban Berg's death in 1935. Both works are ravishingly articulated and dramatically projected in a wonderfully clean recording. HHHH

Handel Rodrigo

Il Complesso Barocco, Curtis (Virgin)

Handel's second opera, composed in Italy in 1707, has here been re-edited and expertly exhumed by the scholar Alan Curtis, who also conducts. Already one can detect the young Handel finding that exquisite balance of musical style and dramatic method at which he was later to excel. But Rodrigo is more than a collector's curiosity, particularly when it is so crisply sung and bouyantly played. HHHH