Edward Walker (flute)
Alan Whittaker (oboe)
Bernard Walton (clarinet)
Charles Gregory (horn)
Gilbert Vinter (bassoon)
In his youth, Rossini wrote a number of string quartets and a series of six quartets for flute, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. The quartet in F reveals the composer in his most naive mood. Here we shall look in vain for counterpoint, or even elementary part-writing ; instead we find first one instrument and then another declaiming operatically, with all the airs and graces of a prima donna, while the others support the soloist with a tum-tum accompaniment of a primitive kind. As a musical curiosity this quartet is worth reviving, although it cannot be taken seriously as a contribution to' chamber music.