The Alexander String Quartet’s (ASQ) Shostakovich on Foghorn
Classics is still one of my top references (see
review), and I enjoy returning to
their
Beethoven recordings from time to time. They
have since revisited Beethoven in a more recent recording on Foghorn (see
review). A complete recording of the Bartók
quartets was not something I wanted to miss, and with the added temptation
of the relatively neglected Kodály quartets the attractions were too
many to resist.
Similarly packaged to the Shostakovich quartets, Foghorn Classics
has given this set a desirable double-gatefold package and substantial
booklet notes by Eric Bromberger. The recordings are vibrant and colourful,
with plenty of detail in a realistic perspective and effective separation
between the instruments, a crucial element in music where internal dialogues
and responses are often such a potent effect. The church acoustic
participates subtly, adding an appealing resonance which enhances an
appreciation of these remarkable works.
Bartók’s string quartets are amongst the most superb
and striking of the entire 20
th century, and the ASQ does them
proud in these performances. They nail the heightened folk-music intensity
of a movement such as the finale of the
String Quartet No. 3, and the
sheer mass which opens the
String Quartet No. 5 has an almost
orchestral weight. Subtleties and those glorious nocturnal atmospheres which
Bartók creates, extremes of colour and shading in the sound in all
dynamics, the Alexander Quartet lives and breathes every aspect of this
music as if their lives depended on it.
There is a great deal of competition in these works, and each time I
have to make comparisons it is always the Takács Quartet on Decca 455
297-2 to which I return. This recording now seems only to be available on
download but it remains a powerful reference, the players really breathing
as one and creating performances which are hard to beat. As for American
quartets, you will wonder if the Emerson Quartet on DG 477 6322 is
preferable to the ASQ, and my answer to that would be a pretty emphatic no.
I’ve had this set around for a while but have never warmed to its more
spiky aggression. The Hagen Quartet is another DG competitor (see
review), to which I’ve only listened through online
streaming. I’m generally a big fan of the Hagen Quartet and they are
brilliant in their Bartók - ranking above the Emersons in my opinion,
but there are some OTT elements and an unrelenting earnestness in their
playing which makes me suspect I would become tired of the thing after a
while.
I think if this was a merely technical battle then the Takács
Quartet would still win, though not by a huge margin. Where passages are
more exposed the ASQ has a marginally looser touch, more individual
character in the players coming through rather than that
‘quartet-unit’ tightness which the Takács has perfected
so well. This is less a disadvantage than a remark in passing, and your
taste may take you more towards the sometimes more intimate feel of the ASQ.
There are certainly few if any technical weaknesses in their performances of
these most demanding works of the quartet repertoire. The energy and
commitment, as well as the lyrically tender emotive power of the music has
rarely sounded more convincing. As with the Takács Quartet the ASQ
recording places odd numbered quartets on disc 1, the even numbers on disc
2. This makes for a satisfying mix, and you can of course do your own
chronological mixing and matching - I wouldn’t recommend sitting
through the entire set in one go in any case. These quartets are like good
poems - you want to put them down and reflect on them after listening
properly rather than pushing through the whole lot, a marvellous experience
though this can be.
Zoltan Kodály’s two string quartets are a good deal
less familiar to me, and if you try to find them in a general search online
you will be inundated by recordings of other composers made by the
Kodály String Quartet for the Naxos label. The
String Quartet No.
2 has appeared in recordings by the Melos and Hagen Quartets among
others, but there were but few discs I could find with both quartets
together. There is the Kontra Quartet on BIS-CD-564, which is fine but
doesn’t have the detail of the ASQ recording, the instruments set a
touch far back in a bathroom acoustic. Centaur Classics has The Audubon
Quartet which also sounds a bit vague and tubby. Hungaroton HCD12362 has the
Kodály Quartet in a somewhat better setting, and with impassioned
performances which rival the ASQ. The ASQ is a touch more compact in the
slower movements, such as the
Lento assai, tranquillo second movement
of the
String Quartet No. 1, but this extra forward momentum does the
music no harm, and to my mind the lyrical nature of the music has to breathe
with this kind of vocal naturalness. Kodály’s first quartet
absorbs and recreates Hungarian folk music in an entirely approachable idiom
with plenty of youthful amours and technical élan, which makes the
vitriol thrown at it by contemporary critics hard to comprehend. The
String Quartet No. 2 has no direct quotations of Hungarian folk
music, but its character retains a distinctly pungent flavour which could
come from virtually nowhere else, though fans of Janáček’s
quartets will no doubt enjoy this one as well. Kodály and
Janáček share a use of speech patterns in their music, and there
are little touches everywhere which suggest some kind of cross-pollination.
Both of these quartets are very much worth having, and while they
don’t share Bartók’s white-hot creative extremes they are
both pieces which reward at every level. If their inclusion is the USP which
tips you towards this set rather than a Bartók-only package then let
it.
Having lived with this package for some time I have to say it easily
passes my ‘desert island’ test: in other words, if all my other
versions were dumped onto a desert island and I was left on the mainland
with only this one, I would be perfectly happy. The Alexander String Quartet
has an eloquence and sense of natural communicativeness which seems to lift
a layer of difficulty from these Bartók quartets, perhaps missing the
last nth of mysterious worlds I hear with the Takács Quartet, but
gaining a warmth of expression which welcomes you in to this world of magic.
Yes, brutality and dissonance isn’t shied away from, but neither is it
presented as some kind of avant-garde motivational essence for these
quartets. The ASQ’s Bartók/Kodály set is very much one
to acquire for long-term appreciation.
Dominy Clements
