Végh and his Quartet
Ludwig Van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No.4 ‘Lobkowitz’ (1800) [22:57]
Ernest BLOCH (1880-1959)
String Quartet No. 2 (1947) [35:43]
Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)
String Quartet, Op.11 (1936 rev 1943) [17:55]
Arthur HONEGGER (1892-1955)
String Quartet No. 2, H.103 (1935) [18:32]
Hanns JELINEK (1901-1969)
String Quartet No. 2, Op.13 (1934-35) [26:14]
Alban BERG (1885-1935)
Lyric Suite (1926) [29:23]
Végh String Quartet
rec. 1948-56, SRF and WDR broadcast recordings
BMC CD261 [76:36 + 74:34]
BMC’s recent twofers devoted to the art of Sandor Végh cover his soloistic prowess as well as his skill as a sonata partner, whilst also offering examples of him directing Camerata Salzburg. Though other releases do include his eponymous quartet this one focuses wholly on the Végh Quartet in radio broadcasts made between 1948 and 1956.
The quartet recorded the Beethoven cycle for Haydn Society in 1952 and it has been reissued complete in recent years on Music and Arts. The single example of their Beethoven in this twofer is Op.18 No.4 in a SRF broadcast from February 1956, the same broadcast on which they played the Barber quartet with which the first disc ends. They take rather easier-going tempos in 1956 than they had four years earlier but the sense of musical characterization is intact and if I tend to find the Végh rather robust in this repertoire at this stage in their long career – their compatriots in the Hungarian Quartet, who recorded the cycle at around the same time, seem to me the more sympathetic interpreters, though then that’s not to deny the sheer musicianship and consistency of the Végh.
The performance of Bloch’s Quartet No.2 comes from 1948. Composed in 1945 this is a work strongly associated, as are the first four quartets, with the Griller String Quartet who recorded it for Decca in 1947, under Bloch’s supervision, and then again in 1954 in a set of four quartets (see review.) Both recordings have been reissued; the earlier one on Dutton, the later on Decca. The Végh give a fine performance of a work new to their repertoire. The bass response on this broadcast is excellent and the extreme melancholia of the slow movement is richly drawn out, so that there is a broad range of colours to be savoured throughout. I find the finale is rather too slow, though, for optimum engagement; it’s difficult to cohere the movement from Passacaglia to the fugal episodes and thence to the ghostly Epilogue and it’s accomplished better at a speed that binds these elements together; for that you need the Griller.
Barber’s Quartet is heard in the 1943 revised version. For the original version, even in imperfect sound and played live, the Curtis Quartet’s pioneering reading from March 1938 is housed in an 8-CD box on West Hill Radio Archives (see review). The Végh didn’t have much American repertoire but this clearly appealed and the crisp detailing in the outer movements is pretty idiomatic, decisive and colourful. There’s chaste warmth to the famous slow movement, albeit – and this is an intermittent feature of the broadcasts – the microphone placement imparts a shrillness to Végh’s tone.
The second disc, equally as well filled as the first, offers three contrasting twentieth century works. Honegger’s powerful Second Quartet (WDR, 1956), a taut three-movement work of strong contrasts – of unease, fugitive lyricism, profound intensity, and nervous energy - receives a notably fine reading. They manage to reflect the resolution from unsettled terseness to refined tenderness in the second movement as well as the gruff undulating figures of the finale, where the corporate sonority is pungent and razory in its intensity. The Austrian composer Hanns Jelinek dedicated his own Second Quartet to the Végh before the War. In fact it was written at around the same time as the Honegger and the contrast between the tough, though frank emotional candour of the Honegger and the twelve-tone Quartet by Jelinek is graphic. He had been a harmony and counterpoint student of Schoenberg during 1918-19, after which he was taught by Franz Schmidt. Clearly, Schoenberg’s influence remained paramount in the 1934 quartet. The only sign of grazioso in the second movement is a brittle kind of wintry elegance whilst the slow movement is a theme and variations with plenty of truculent incident. The textures in the finale thin noticeably; the Vivo turns out to wind down into a contented silence. The dedicatees play it with wholehearted perception though I can’t say it’s a work to warm the heart. Berg’s masterpiece offers a way out of the Schoenbergian cul de sac and the quartet members bring sumptuous energy, expressive intensity and a fine series of tempo relationships to bear.
The booklet notes for this series are largely the same with some small amendments for individual volumes but the black and white photographs are thankfully different and beautifully reproduced. The transfers are excellent. This gatefold double CD offers much to the enquiring admirer of the quartet – much that amplifies or subtly revises known strengths, as in Beethoven, that reveals the group as encouraging new repertoire (Jelinek) and that shows it taking into its bloodstream fine new work for the ensemble: Honegger, Barber, Bloch.
Jonathan Woolf
