Oxalis Quartet - Johann Anton André: String Quartets op. 15, 1 & 3 (2026) [Hi-Res]

“Attention, nostalgia hunters!” is the message at the end of this album, for the refrain of the Allegro molto vivace—with which Johann Anton André concludes his three-part quartet collection, Opus 15—is not far removed from the central theme around which the finale of Ludwig van Beethoven’s last violin sonata revolves. But anyone who might think that the industrious young head of the famous Offenbach publishing house had not shielded himself from outside influences would be mistaken: André’s trilogy appeared a full decade before Beethoven’s Opus 96—honi soit qui mal y pense …

Overall, the encounter with the quartet composer André is a most delightful one. Certainly, he is classically orthodox, writing minuets instead of the emerging scherzos, keeping his developments tightly in check, yet surprising the listener with many small and larger caprices of a harmonic and linear nature that make his scores a considerable pleasure. Even the “filler pieces” are quite something: two Poissons d’Avril (“April Fools’ Jokes”), in which each voice follows its own time signature even when it joins the others to form a full-fledged fugue. That’s no small feat …