A portrait of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players through the 1970s, through their complete recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. This diverse range of repertoire receives luxury treatment from the musicians, always centred in beauty of tone and with the kind of joyful freedom of phrasing which world-class orchestral musicians produce when liberated from the authority of a baton.

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players were created in 1964, to play at the Tanglewood Festival before the “main event” of the Boston Symphony’s concerts. Before long, the BSCP became the main event themselves, with a programme of concerts throughout the year, and a busy recording schedule.

When the Boston Symphony Orchestra began to record with DG in 1970, so did the Chamber Players. Violinist Joseph Silverstein, cellist Jules Eskin and flautist Doriot Anthony Dwyer all take starring roles on an album of late chamber music by Claude Debussy, and a new booklet essay by Peter Quantrill outlines the importance of these three superb musicians to the profile and the identity of the BSCP.

As led by Silverstein, the repertoire of the BSCP also reflects the inclusive nature of the main orchestra’s programming. There is high modernism, in an album of modern American chamber music by Ives, Carter and Porter. There is classic modernism, in immaculately prepared accounts of landmark works by Stravinsky and Schoenberg. There are core Romantic classics such as a Dvořák string quintet and the Clarinet Quintet by Brahms. Then there are delicious rarities such as chamber-scale arrangements of Johann Strauss waltzes.

This diverse range of repertoire receives luxury treatment from the musicians of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, always centred in beauty of tone and the kind of joyful freedom of phrasing which world-class orchestral musicians produce when liberated from the authority of a baton. Coming to a close with a glorious pairing of the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms from 1993, led on Philips by the veteran clarinettist Harold Wright, this collection of “Original Jacket” albums rewards lovers of chamber music with playing of consistent vitality and refinement.

“An extremely intelligent coupling, with the strongest playing in the [Debussy] Violin Sonata … Mrs. Dwyer plays Syrinx quite as beautifully as one had always expected she would.” – High Fidelity, December 1970

“One could hardly ask for a finer amalgam of vitality and refinement.” – Stereo Review, February 1971 (Debussy)

“One of the most philosophical of Carter’s scores and therefore one of the most moving, especially when performed by this group.” – High Fidelity, August 1971 (American Chamber Music)

“One of [Carter’s] most ingenious and inventive works … outstandingly played here … The performances are outstanding, most particularly in matters of phrasing and articulation.” – Stereo Review, September 1971 (American Chamber Music)

“The performance is a beautiful accomplishment.” – High Fidelity, September 1972 (Dvořák)

“Virile in rhythmic articulation and warm in tonal quality.” – Stereo Review, November 1972 (Dvořák)

“Crammed with first-rate music-making … the sort of thing of which best-sellers are made.” – Stereo Review, June 1976 (Stravinsky: Chamber Music)

“The voices are nicely differentiated and characterized, and the recording of the instruments is superb. The conductor-less Boston players provide as brisk and unsentimental an interpretation as Stravinsky could have demanded.” – High Fidelity, August 1976 (Stravinsky)

“The Boston Symphony Chamber Players … are simply marvellous as an alt Wienerisch salon orchestra … evoking the Vienna that is the enchanted city of everyone’s dreams.” – High Fidelity, December 1979

“The playing is accomplished, with a particularly good violin part in the Berg from Joseph Silverstein.” – Gramophone, May 1980 (Schoenberg, Berg, Debussy)

“The dance-like character of each movement is well maintained, and the work’s tremendous drive, the intensity of Schoenberg’s emotional and musical perceptions, comes vividly across.” – Gramophone, September 1980 (Schoenberg: Suite, op.29)