Früher und später - Kamermuziek (1992)

"It is really only recently that Berthold Goldschmidt has begun to win wider recognition. The present disc illustrates two periods of his composition: there was a gap of nearly a quarter of a century from 1959, when Goldschmidt concentrated on his conducting career, until the Clarinet Quartet (1982/3). The String Quartet (1925/6) was praised by Schönberg. Conspicuously well crafted, with unforced contrapuntal resource, it evidences a lively mind. The work is brilliantly played by the Mandelring Quartet. The Piano Sonata, though written so soon after, is scarcely recognizable as being by the same composer: its first movement is an aggressively dissonant, atonal 7/4 Presto. Gieseking's assertion that the work was unplayable is triumphantly disapproved by the 30-year-old Kolja Lessing. In its partial resumption of tonality the one-movement Clarinet Quartet of 1983 represents both a link with Goldschmidt's past and a new mellowness of outlook. Altogether an impressive disc." (Lionel Salter, Gramophone, 1992)