Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1818), born in Venice, was a musical polymath renowned in her day for her singing, violin playing, and compositions. As befits a touring virtuosa, her most popular compositions were her concerti but she also published trios, sonatas, and, in Paris in 1769, a set of six string quartets. Dating from about the same time as Haydn’s Op. 9, Sirmen’s quartets betray the divertimento origins of the genre. Peter Carter, first violinist of the Allegri Quartet in 1994, finds the works “at least as appealing as the early Haydn’s.” They are all two-movement works, with an opening allegro in a rudimentary sonata form and a slower second movement. The two played here a pleasant, graceful works less showy and more ensemble oriented than one would expect.
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