Though audiences with more mainstream tastes may wonder why, György
Ligeti's string quartets are currently all the rage with performers and
labels. With what might be thought of as unfortunate timing, the Béla
Quartet's recording on Aeon comes out at the same time as the new Armida
Quartet's debut on AVI (8553298) which aptly couples Ligeti's
Métamorphoses Nocturnes with quartets by Bartók and
Kurtág. These follow the Keller Quartet on ECM New Series this past
summer (2197), and the JACK Quartet a year ago on Wigmore Hall Live (0053),
on which they uncompromisingly offered Ligeti's No.2 alongside works by
Cage, Xenakis and Pintscher.
The Parker Quartet on Naxos in 2009 (8.570781), the Artemis Quartet
on Ars Musici (AM 1276-2) and the Hagen Quartet on Deutsche Grammophon (DG
474327) all add significantly to the competition. The premiere recording
prize went to the now defunct LaSalle Quartet, to whom Ligeti dedicated the
Second. Their 1970s LP recordings for DG are nowadays available on CD, or at
least the Second is (DG 4743272). The ever-intrepid Arditti Quartet is the
only ensemble to have recorded the 'cycle' twice, first on Wergo (WER
60079-50) and later for the Sony/Teldec Ligeti Edition (SK 62306). In fact,
they have since recorded the Second Quartet a third time.
The relatively new and young Béla Quartet from France are
unusually adventurous in their repertory. The likes of Cage, Crumb,
Kurtág, Lachenmann, Reich, Saariaho, Scelsi and a host of more
obscure contemporary composers giving a good idea of where their
proclivities lie.
Ligeti sits comfortably within that pantheon of modern/post-modern
grandees, although he never got round to writing a third quartet that would
have bulked out Aeon's rather parsimonious running time. They are not alone
in this, it must be said - the Kellers, for example, coupled Ligeti with
Barber's Adagio op.11, giving listeners an eiderdown pillow to go with the
scratchy sheets, but no extra minutes. The Artemis Quartet did not bother
with any extras, leaving a stingy running time of 42 minutes. The Parkers
offered Ligeti's 12-minute folk-inflected Andante and Allegretto - which
sounds, incidentally, like something by another composer from a bygone era.
Ligeti's two quartets are fabulous works, and their gradual
absorption into the general repertoire is well deserved, but the easiest
place to approach the composer is via the Sonata for solo cello, which is
soulful and melodic, and somewhat reminiscent, curiously perhaps, of
Hindemith's well-known op.25/3. On the other hand, it does give the listener
rather the wrong impression of what to expect from Ligeti. Whilst the First
Quartet, from what Ligeti himself considered his own "prehistoric" period,
is lightly Bartókian and thus readily approachable, the Second is
openly avant-gardist. Still, the work is predominantly quiet and calm, with
only brief, twitching episodes of droning dissonance, demented pizzicato or
night-creature scurryings. It is in George Crumb's
Black Angels
territory, but less scary.
Aeon's audio is excellent. In fact, in engineering terms it arguably
beats all competition. There is some minor snorting by one of the string
players audible in the quietest sections of Quartet no.1 - perhaps cellist
Luc Dedreuil, because he clearly feels the need to breathe emphatically for
the microphone in the Cello Sonata. In purely musical terms, however, the
Quatuor Béla's Ligeti ranks with the best - and perhaps even higher.
Detailed, well written notes compensate in part for the short
running-time.
Byzantion
Contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
