Les 100 de Roland Dyens - Let me call you Sweetheart

This Edwardian ballad was written in 1910 and first recorded by The Peerless Quartet (isn't the Internet a wonderful thing?!). Here Dyens makes a reasonably straightforward arrangement of the song complete with its preceding verse, going through the whole piece twice. Every part is, by itself, not too hard. You do have to cope with one or two high positions but there is nothing too daunting. The tune is handled beautifully and all the slightly schmaltzy harmonies deftly arranged for the quartet. In the end, Dyens allows the simplicity of the whole piece to speak for itself and I think any quartet, whether only moderately good or absolutely brilliant would find this little gem fabulous to play and it would go down really well as a surprising addition to an otherwise perhaps more serious concert programme.

Beautifully done.

Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)