ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK (1854-1921): String Quartet in C, RICHARD WAGNER (1813-1883): Albumblatt, GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813-1901): String Quartet in E Minor, GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858-1924): Crisantemi, OTTORINO RESPIGHI (1879-1936): Il Tramonto (Ruth Ziesak [soprano]).

Description: Another "String Quartets by Opera Composers" compilation (which the notes have the nerve to claim is rather unprecedented) - with an exception: Humperdinck's. Hardly ever heard or recorded, it is not even known when Humperdinck composed it but its three movements (lasting almost 18 minutes) are full of an easily flowing melodic Romanticism which would not have been out of place in a work by Mendelssohn or Schumann. The minute-and-a-half Albumblatt by Wagner is interesting for its signature harmonic suspensions and, in fact, was later put into the score of Parsifal. Leipzig String Quartet.