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I wonder if Mark would be kind enough to offer some clarification? Did the initial batch of CDs with a fault not get beyond Toccata itself? Or to put it another way, are there any wonky CDs in the hands of retailers? Can we order a copy from a customary retailer such as MDT and be confident in getting, as it were, some non-wonky Raff?

(A friendly note to friends beyond the UK: retailers such as Sainsburys now offer such things as wonky carrots at reduced prices which - quite unlike wonky Raff - can be consumed with delight.)

It is worth adding he started as a gifted violinist having studied with Joachim. Before WW1 he introduced many French chamber works to Germany and in turn introduced the Strauss violin concerto to France. An accident at the end of the war ended his career, and from then he turned to composition - largely of chamber works - working in isolation and away from all mainstream developments in early 20th century music. The music is utterly distinctive and can't be called 'impressionistic' or even 'romantic'. Of possible interest to Eric, who raised the question, there are three string quartets of 1920, 1922, and 1934 and a piano quintet of 1925. I hold all these works in high regard and have become very fond of them. I was privileged to hear a private performance by a young string quartet in London last year and that was a wonderfully memorable experience. But, alas, I fear further discussion of Durosoir here would induce a state of apoplexy amongst those who manage the site.

Excellent and most welcome news!

I think I remember reading in the newsletter of the Stanford Society about 2 years ago that the Society was in the process of raising funds for the recording of all 8 quartets, and had approached the Dante Quartet (a very fine ensemble in my view). I hadn't heard any more of the project and wondered if it, like so many other things, had sadly fallen by the wayside. My hopes were raised when I discovered that the Dante had announced a performance of the 7th in their annual Tamar Valley Festival. So was a complete cycle underway perhaps?

The neglect of Stanford's quartets is a downright scandal. So far we've got (I believe) just one commercial recording of any of these quartets - the first two quartets by the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet on Hyperion and about 10 years ago. That was a really good recording, and showed these quartets to be fine works. In the meantime we've had two complete cycles of the symphonies for those interested in such noisy things, the piano concertos, lots and lots of the various choral works, plenty of organ music, and Christopher Howell is steadily rolling out the complete music for piano solo on the Sheva label (and a really interesting and worthwhile project that turns out to be). But the string quartets? Bugger all I fear.

Read the magisterial Dibble Stanford book (what a joy to read) and you see what great store Stanford set by his quartets. He rubbed shoulders with some renowned string players (the long friendship with Joachim for example). It is clear he cared quite passionately about quartets and set about writing his own with great seriousness. Hence my claim above that it is a wretched scandal that they have been so neglected in performance and recording.

However, fingers crossed, perhaps their time has come. We (hopefully and funding permitting) have a complete cycle on the way from the Dante Qt. I've also been persistently propositioning just about every Quartet I get to know in concerts and residencies in such places as Snape and Aldeburgh. A couple have expressed real interest in working some of the quartets up to performance level after looking at scores (some of which remain unpublished). One London based Quartet of real stature and with a successful history of recording are currently offering a couple of Stanford quartets to Hyperion, and if no response there, then to Naxos. In the meantime the more people who go about the world proclaiming the phrase Stanford quartets the better. Word getting around leads to concert performances and then to recordings. Music of such quality needs to be put on the map.

And now for a postscript on what on this forum is a sadly forbidden composer (moderators please close your eyes). Almost exactly 49 years ago I heard the Amadeus give a performance in a student society of Peter Racine Fricker's 2nd quartet. I knew nothing of PRF at the time (apart from attending a talk a few weeks beforehand by Hans Keller who, with a great whoosh of cigarette smoke issuing from both nostrils and that look of almost frightening utter seriousness glaring from his eyes, proclaimed PRF's quartets to be "interesting" works. As far as I recall he was supposed to be talking about the Mendelssohn quartets and PRF came up as a kind of diversion). It normally takes at least 3-4 performances before you begin to gain some confidence in getting to know a work and discover how it works, but that single performance by the Amadeus swept me off my feet and I was stunned by it. I've now yearned for 49 years to hear the work again for apart from a now ancient LP by the Amadeus there have been no recordings at all of the three PRF quartets, and I've never come across any of them in performance (at least in the UK).

Now PRF was a composer I urged the London based Quartet referred to above to have a look at. That was about 18 months ago, and a couple of weeks ago I received a message from them that they have now completed the recording of all 3 PRF quartets plus some bits and pieces. What made me especially joyful was a recording of the 2nd Quartet together with a message that I couldn't now complain that a full half century has passed without my being able to hear again that marvellous piece. Their performance of it is wonderful and to my ears especially successful. And the CD of all three Quartets will be released in February. Despite being out of bounds I hope fellow forum members come to share my joy when they hear this disc. And hopefully one day, and within a year or two, we will have all Stanford quartets in commercial records. I would regard that as something to be really celebrated. (So I'm now safely back within the limits of the Forum!

Some are already in the can, but I understand Toccata is awaiting further funding to transform recordings into CD releases. So far it has been an excellent series, but I do grant the general point that there are rather a lot of Volume 1s in the Tocatta catalogue (especially of music for piano solo) without, as yet, much sign of any Volume 2s.

Yes, praises all round for those Violin Sonatas. And rather astonishing that Godard wrote all four at the start of his compositional career.

Like Mark I haven't been bowled over by what I've heard of the orchestral music - but unlike Mark I was very impressed by the Timpani recording of the String Quartets. They do take several auditions to discover their delights, but in my view they are works of high quality. There is a slightly older recording of the two Piano Trios (Op. 32 and 72 from 1880 and 1884) by the Trio Parnassus, and it was largely those works that awakened my interest in Godard.

I've also very much enjoyed the Grand Piano recordings of the piano works by Eliane Reyes - one delight after another in those discs!

Thanks Mark. I'm aware of those recordings - and appreciate them.

However I think my point still stands: there is a pressing need for good commercial recordings of these quartets. Rightly or wrongly, I believe that only when there is an easily available recording of something do those works or their composer gain currency, other groups take up the works, the word gets around, and then there becomes a decent chance of hearing the works in concert.

Hasn't just this been amply demonstrated by Raff, for example? I appreciate it is a long uphill task, and one still bumps into musicians or concert organisers who mutter 'Who?', but think of how many people (myself included!) were wholly unaware of Raff before we had decent commercial recordings of the symphonies, the chamber music, and the piano music. Those were the dark drab Raffless (as it were!) days and it is was largely commercial recordings (and persistent advocacy of Raff by people such as yourself!) that have got us out of that situation.

Besides, I'm a regular unrepentant fully addicted CD junkie. Nothing can beat the presence of a hard physical CD, and an informative set of notes, in the hands. If more shelves have to be built, well, so be it for that's the cost we gladly bear of being an enthusiast for the music discussed in this forum.

Hugely welcome!

I welcome this - along with CPO's previous recording of the 1st and 3rd symphonies we will have another complete set of the four symphonies.

But what is urgently needed are recordings of the five string quartets. Some years ago the Mandelring Quartet recorded the 2nd (Op. 31 in A minor) in their excellent series of the Brahms quartets (where each was coupled with a quartet by another composer). However there are no recordings at all of the remaining four Gernsheim quartets. Given that, thankfully, Gernsheim seems to be enjoying a rediscovery in recent years all these quartets are surely crying out for a recording. Come on, CPO!

And certainly worth tracking down is a commercial recording of String Quartet No. 3 in F minor, Op. 37 played by the Quatuor Mosaiques on a Laboire Records disc - where it is coupled with the Cello Sonata Op. 7 and the Serenade in C minor Op. 32. I hold the Quatuor Mosaiques in high regard, but I'm aware not everyone will share that enthusiasm.

I'll get myself a rap over the knuckles from a moderator given that the issue isn't relevant to the thread, but it does occur to me that Acte Prealable, despite a good number of gems in its catalogue, also produces a disproportionate number of duds. The Stojowski Vn Concerto is one case in point - like others I found this disc so very disappointing.

Another case is the disc of Hans Huber's 2nd and 7th Vn Sonatas (Op. 42 and 119 composed in 1879 and 1903). From what I've read Huber's nine violin sonatas form an important part of his corpus, and since I was very impressed by the symphonies I was eager to get to know these sonatas - especially since both are 'big' works of 25-30 minutes duration. I never like to offer negative remarks about recorded performances of unsung repertory, but I found this disc rather hopeless. One gets the sense that both performers are struggling to do some justice to the two works but that how to perform them well simply eludes them. One sometimes finds considerable rewards in a 'good amateur' performance, but not here for, despite trying, the mind just simply packs up and you wriggle around in your chair with exasperation. I doubt if that is Huber's fault. And given the effort of trying (hard) to get to grips with the music I'm hopeful that it isn't my fault either. These are the kind of performances that, as it were, do the opposite of favours to the music. And that's a great pity since it surely reduces the chance of hearing Huber's violin sonatas in concert or future recordings of them becoming available.

Acte Prealable is also notorious for issuing discs of remarkably short playing times. I never play that tiresome game of proclaiming 'I've paid full price for the disc and therefore I want up to 80 minutes of music on it'. Nonetheless it is not unreasonable to begrudge a disc where only approximately half the possible playing time is taken up by works recorded on it. I'm thinking here of the Acte Prealable disc of the Rozycki violin concerto. In my view that it is wonderful work. However in this performance it has a duration of 24 minutes, and the whole disc is then bumped up to a total of a mere 48 minutes by adding some pretty negligible trifles. That kind of programming doesn't provide any incentive at all for anyone to buy the disc, and again the issue of the disc does Rozycki the opposite of any favour. Sales (I guess) must have been rather dismal....and then the company accountant pronounces that Rozycki is a figure in which the company shouldn't invest. Such a huge pity since the relatively small number of Rozycki recordings indicate, not a major figure, but certainly a rewarding and significant one.

It is very easy to say, but hugely difficult to actually demonstrate, that the BBC and the Proms in particular, was 'dumbed down' by Roger Wright. Matters were far more complex than that......and the political manoeuvrings and pressures within the organisation might well have led Roger to decide to depart from his post and devote his energies and skills elsewhere.

He has certainly thrown himself into his new position at Aldeburgh and Snape with terrific energy, and has gained considerable admiration and respect from those who are frequent participants in musical activities and events in these venues. He is always present at concerts, and often offers a public welcome to those who have come to perform. I was especially struck by an address he gave at a rather wonderful concert given in March by the Piatti Quartet that marked the centenary of the birth of Cecil Aronowitz.....his words were rather moving. Outside his post Roger has also taken part in two enormously entertaining 'Matinees Musicales' with Humphrey Burton held in the Aldeburgh Cinema on Sunday afternoons devoted to 'The Art of Conducting'. On these occasions it is quite evident that Roger has devoted his life to the pursuit of music and enabling the best performances of it possible. He also displays a quite amazing knowledge and familiarity with a staggering range of conductors and legendary names in music and to hear him talk about these figures has brought about much pleasure in audiences. I'd say that his special aptitude is for seeking out and actively encouraging new talents in musical performance and for presenting to audiences many works or composers not previously encountered at Aldeburgh. That is why he has quickly been greeted as a real asset to musical life in East Anglia. Of course there have been some things I didn't especially like....but there is no reason whatsoever to think that things are being 'dumbed down'. That is little more than an unthinking remark and one I find offensive.

I think that "sickly sentimentality and rambling inconsequentiality" is an unfair and inappropiate description of the chamber music (and I don't know any of Perosi's music apart from the Bongiovanni discs of the quartets).

Part of the problem is of course the quality of those recordings. If you manage to 'hear through' those indequate recordings it is possible to imagine the music in far more effective performances, and music of a perhaps modest but certainly pleasing quality.

The real problem though is that quite astonishing developments are happening in the musical world of the 1920s, and Perosi, for good or ill, seems wholly unaffected by the music around him. Imagine being at a gathering of excited people, and over there in the corner is Perosi delivering a long monologue all to himself. If you stopped your ears to all the cackle around you I'm sure you would find Perosi a perfectly competent and fluent speaker, and certainly producing stuff of a reasonable quality. However in the whole scheme of things it just isn't terribly interesting because he seems to have no awareness of what else is going on in the room. (Apologies for the rather clumsy analogy!)

In my view Perosi is at his best in the two piano quintets in the Bongiovanni discs (composed as far as I remember in the early 1930s?)

Independently of whether or not the comments in the Gramophone are justified, I would hope that the sniping of one particular critic does not undermine the success of this especially welcome release. Both concertos gained significant praise following their first performances but then fell into woeful and undeserved neglect in later years. If this release tends to resurrect them then the disc deserves to be celebrated (and purchased!).

And surely worth remembering a most obvious point: 99% of the concerts we attend contain some 'blemish' or a feature that gets you thinking 'it might have been better if.....' But that's no reason not to go to concerts for you'd be the real loser in that case. Same with a recorded performance surely. We don't live in a world where everything comes along neatly parcelled into pieces of sheer perfection, and if it did then, as Schopenhauer suggested, we'd quickly get bored with it!

I have written to Naxos in each of Hong Kong, USA and the UK telling them that I very much want to purchase this (physical) disc and feel very frustrated that it has been announced as a 'digital product'. I guess I am in a minority here, but I positively don't want a 'digital product' and I'm too set in my ways to learn (and buy) new technologies. I want a physical product (and set of notes) that I can see and touch, add to my library, and which, subject to the physical laws of nature remaining fixed, will remain a permanent item on my shelves and not liable to disappearing into the ether if my computer performs a wobbly. I'm also especially frustrated because Krehl appears an interesting figure in the history of music, and this recording, as far as I'm aware, is the only recording of any of his works. Thus, for me, if no physical CD, then no Krehl. And that seems inconsistent with one of the aims of Naxos: that although it is a commercial enterprise, and has to operate within the market, it nonetheless seeks to make available the widest range of music and to make it readily accessible to anyone.

I've had a whole series of responses from people within Naxos across several continents. Despite addressing a clear fuddy-duddy they have been quite remarkably polite and courteous, and tell me that they fully understand and indeed sympathise with my concerns.

It emerges that a limited number of physical CDs will be manufactured. One source of the CD will be what Naxos calls 'the artist's website'. That is of limited hope since it depends on the 'artist' making copies available for sale at a cost determined by themselves and then fees, postage costs or whatever would be added. Much more hopeful is a purchase from Naxos itself - in the shape (in the UK at least) of Naxos-Direct. They have the facilities available to manufacture physical CDs upon demand. Over the last couple of years I've obtained several back-catalogue Naxos or Marco Polo discs that are now deleted and unobtainable from normal commercial outlets such as MDT or Presto. The service has been excellent.

I noted the Amazon link referred to by Alan towards the end of December when the 'product' (whatever it is) was advertised for release. It is clear that Amazon are uncertain at this stage of just what it is that they are offering for sale. It has a digital only prefix, but nonetheless is advertised as being an 'audio CD'.

With fingers tightly crossed I've ordered it from Amazon. If, like me, you've stumped up the modest annual fee for Amazon Prime you can buy the 'product' for £5.99 post free and the right to a no-quibble return if the 'product' turns out to be unwanted. A bargain price to get your hands on the Krehl recording surely? If my order is fulfilled by anything other than a physical CD then straight back it goes with no cost whatsoever.

Things look good. Amazon accepted my order a week or so ago, and tell me the item will be delivered between 14-15 January. That suggests to me, and I hope I'm right, that someone somewhere is currently making me a physical CD. One of my replies from Naxos seemed to suggest that a number of physical CDs will be manufactured in the USA, so possibly right now a batch are on their way to Amazon-UK.

If anyone is interested I'll certainly post here a statement of what exactly I receive on 14-15 January. But, yippee, it looks like being a CD.

And, please, let us not get into a long lingering tiresome debate on whether or not physical CDs are Good Things, whether or not someone such as myself in refusing to use anything other than a physical CD should be consigned to history, or whatever. The focus here is solely upon Krehl and how to access these two pieces. As for me, inhabitating a house where a good number of walls are covered with floor to ceiling shelves of CDs I am irrevocably committed to the medium until such time as I'm carted off to the final resting place. And on a purely self-regarding note, I'd be most delighted if considerable numbers of people, like me, ordered from Amazon or Naxos or whatever. This would demonstrate to Naxos that there is a continuing demand for CDs, and that they are shooting themselves in the foot, if they started to release solely 'digital only' products.

Semloh - The Qt on the Musiques Suisses recording of the 4 Juon quartets is the Niziol Quartett. Founded by Bartek Niziol who plays Vn1 and hence an ensemble to be reckoned with. In my view they provide distinguished performances but that shouldn't stop anyone from looking forward to exploring whatever CPO provides. After all the Juon chamber works are far more rewarding than the orchestral music.