BRAHMS
String Quartets
Opus 51 no. 1 in C minor
Opus 51 no. 2 in A minor
Opus 67 in B flat major
String Quintet in G major, opus
111*
Tokyo String Quartet
* Brandis String Quartet, with Brett Dean
(viola)
Regis RRC 2038 (2 discs,
125.33 minutes)
on sale for around £6
Brahms is the greatest master of 19th century chamber music after Beethoven.
And 'after Beethoven' applies in both the chronological and the historical
sense. It was probably his reverence for the classical tradition which delayed
the completion of his first string quartets; they are the work of the mature
artist, not the young man. (He certainly wrote quartets as a young man, but
he destroyed them.)
The Tokyo Quartet recorded the three Brahms Quartets in 1986 for Vox, and
these new Regis transfers do marvellous justice to their refined and committed
performances. The best of the three is probably the first, Opus 51 no. 1,
with a real intensity of focus and a beautifully judged dynamic control which
brings out the subtle features of the textures. Tempi are well judged too,
sounding absolutely naturally and, like any fine performance, as though the
music could not possibly be interpreted differently.
The Quintet is one of Brahms final chamber music compositions, written shortly
before the celebrated Trio and Quintet for the Meiningen clarinettist Richard
Mhlfeld. The extra richness brought by the addition of a second viola
is used with both subtlety and drama by Brahms. To experience the new sound-world
of quintet rather than quartet, simply sample the early stages of the first
movement, the driving intensity of the first subject contrasted against the
sublime lyricism of the second. All credit, then, to the Brandis Quartet
and their extra violist Brett Dean, who recorded the work in Berlin for Teldec
in 1996. The Brandis are an excellent ensemble who have made too few recordings;
this one, at any rate, shows their true value.
This Brahms set can be highly recommended and serves the composer well.
Terry Barfoot
