FARTEIN VALEN (1887-1952): String Quartets No. 1, Op. 10, No. 2, Op. 13 and No. 0, 3 Poems by Goethe for Soprano and String Quartet, Op. 6.

Description: 2L's refusal to sell half of their releases as a single disc at a normal price will cause many collectors of 20th century music to miss some truly beautiful stuff. Valen followed Berg and Webern rather than Schoenberg when he adopted twelve-tone technique and both his numbered quartets (and the three brief songs) have the intense, saturated lyricism of, say, Berg's Lyric Suite. The two-movement No. "0" of 1909 is tonal, purely late Romantic. Gorgeous stuff. Pity about the high-end audio concept packaging and price. No texts. Hilde Haraldsen Sveen (soprano), Hansa Quartet. 2L SACD hybrid and Blu-ray Audio discs