The exploration of the music of the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967) on Toccata Classics continues with this first recording of two more of his seven string quartets. Flury was himself a gifted violinist, and these works – written for personal pleasure and for musician friends – observe the classic definition of the string quartet as a conversation between four equal partners, with Flury’s many years of practical music-making producing quartet-textures that are thoroughly idiomatic, even masterly. Both works speak a rich late-Romantic language similar to that of composers such as Korngold, Schmidt and Zemlinsky and encompass a gratifying range of emotions, from touching introspection to bucolic cheer.

“These finely-crafted String Quartets […] should have had close encounters with recording studio microphones long before now. […] consummate and polished 20th century string quartet writing that doesn’t dredge up the gas chambers or plays way out in left field. In fact, the richly harmonic slow movement of the C major ... is highly redolent of late 19th century chamber music. Thanks to efforts like this, we get to hear neglected music for the first time.” – Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel (Vol.1: TOCC0712)