Presto Recording of the Week
15th July 2022

Berg: String Quartet, Op. 3
Webern: Langsamer Satz, (slow movement), Op. post. (1905)
Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 10

The UK-based string quartet bring luminous clarity and beauty to three transitional works by the Second Viennese School, with soprano Carolyn Sampson joining them for Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2.

"the marvellous thing about this performance [of the Berg] is the way the Heaths balance absolute textual fidelity with a sense of spontaneity – the expressive portamenti in the opening pages are a case in point, as are the subtle variations in vibrato (one aspect which Berg doesn’t prescribe!) throughout…In the Schoenberg, Sampson and the quartet are ever-sensitive to the mystical beauty of Georg’s poetry, painting the ‘hazy vapours’ and ‘holy fire’ in the most vivid of colours as this superb album draws to a transcendent close." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Music, 15th July 2022.