The Debussy-Ravel axis is the most famous chamber pairing
in the catalogue and it would perhaps be easier to note those quartets
that don’t pair them together than those that do. The Tokyo Quartet’s
recordings date from August 1977 and are now amazingly a quarter of
a century old. Little has dated about the performances even if there
is a nagging feeling that they, as with other groups, properly fail
to distinguish the characters of each work one from another. The tumbling
violin lines in the opening of the movement of the Debussy are finely
done; they lean into the notes and bend the rhythm of the second movement
with phrasal insouciance; they express delicacy and concentration in
the Andantino and in the finale are sonorous – violist Kazuhide Isomura
especially so. In the Ravel the continuity of mood is captured with
cellist Sadao Harada prominent in the tonal balance, particularly in
the Assez vif second movement. They are subtle as well as instrumentally
sound.
The novelty is a 1961 performance of the Fauré
Piano Trio Op 120 given by the Roth Trio. This was a most impressive
trio of Feri Roth, violinist, Joseph Schuster, cellist and André
Previn, pianist. They make a more than competent stab, some queasy string
moments apart, but can’t convince me that they are themselves convinced
by the work. The slow Andantino is dispatched in 8’05 – the commanding
but relatively youthful Collard-Dumay-Lodéon trio took 9’36 in
their celebrated 1970s recording and that is a sizeable difference of
approach and intent especially in a movement that tends to ramble inordinately
as it does. As a result I tend to prefer the Roth’s intent but the Frenchmen’s
execution. In fact I don’t think existing allegiances are breached by
any of the performances on the latest of the Sony Essential Classics.
Jonathan Woolf
Tokyo Quartet