Chamber music (cd)

Gramophone Magazine
March 2026
Editor’s Choice

Utrecht String Quartet, Ilona Timchenko (piano)

Martin, F: Piano Quintet
Martin, F: String Trio
Martin, F: String Quartet

Frank Martin's chamber music oeuvre may not take up much space on the shelf, yet it spans an entire artistic life. Together with pianist Ilona Timchenko, the Utrecht String Quartet dedicate themselves to three key works that impressively bring together tradition and modernity in the 20th century. His early Piano Quintet from 1919 clearly echoes influences from Bach to Franck, as well as folk melodies he had heard whilst stationed in the Savoy countryside during the First World War. Martin quickly reached the limits of the traditional major-minor system, although he felt that music without tonality would be like architecture ignoring gravity. He combined Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique with a fine sense of sound and harmonic sophistication, particularly evident in the String Trio from 1936. It was not until the age of 75 that Martin turned to the supreme genre of chamber music: the string quartet, a work combining inspirations from a long artistic career which the Utrecht String Quartet bring to life with natural ease.

"The performance [of the Quartet] by the Utrecht Quartet is wonderfully accomplished, and especially moving in the third-movement Larghetto... this is a valuable and distinguished addition to the Martin discography." — Gramophone Magazine, March 2026