Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
String Quartet No 1, Op 25 [28:02]
String Quartet No 3, Op 94 [31:16]
Simple Symphony, Op 4 [17:26]
The Britten Quartet
rec. October 1989, The Maltings, Snape, UK
ALTO ALC1441 [77:00]
This is a reissue of one of a pair of Collins Classic CDs covering Britten’s three numbered quartets and a few other Britten pieces for the medium. The Britten Quartet’s players were all established leaders or principals in London orchestras and founded their quartet in 1985. The booklet note refers to the ensemble’s “ten year existence” and the group made a number of very good recordings in that decade. This one was well received at the time, when surveys of these Britten works were not so common. There have been important successors since, but as a bargain priced reissue this retains some validity.
The Simple Symphony uses recycled material from Britten’s childhood compositions, is designated as for “string orchestra or quartet”, and is playable by amateurs in either guise. (Apparently it still earns about £45,000 per annum for Britten’s estate). Suffice to say it is given here with the charm we might expect, and the fairly immediate sound means it does not feel like at all like a diminution for those familiar with the orchestral version.
The First String Quartet opens with an eerie, captivating sound, with a pizzicato bass in the cello, and very high slow, sustained lines in the other instruments. This reappears at times, in between which there are rhythmic fast sections. The players make much of the contrast, alternating poise in the slow music and energy in the fast music to dramatic effect. The short scherzo, marked “con slancio” ( ‘with enthusiasm, impetuous’) is just that, even aggressive, despatched in less than three minutes (2:52). The “Andante calmo” is perhaps too calm, if not becalmed, at over twelve minutes, but well sustained and serving sufficiently in its role as the still centre of the quartet. The finale has plenty of playful wit.
The Third Quartet was one of Britten’s very last works, finished in Venice in 1975, its finale subtitled “La Serenissima” after that city, and quoting from Britten’s final opera, Death in Venice. It was written for the Amadeus Quartet, and they worked with Britten on it in September 1976, but the composer died a couple of weeks before the world premiere in Snape Maltings on 19th December. I was present at that premiere, and still recall the sight of Pears in the box he and the composer often occupied, and the stunned silence after the wonderfully elegiac finale had reached its enigmatic close. I have heard many first performances, but that is the one where I was sure I had heard a work for the ages.
The Britten Quartet give a largely persuasive account of the work, with good playing in its first four movements. But the final Passacaglia is not quite the moving envoi it can be, perhaps because the tempo feels a bit of a trudge, when a more flowing speed is more effective. (The composer might not have helped with his marking “Slow – Slowly moving”.) The Britten Quartet take 11:55 when the Amadeus take 8:23 in their 1978 studio recording (Decca), and 8:43 in a DG download of a 1983 London concert. They also took 9:03 in a performance of May 1977 at the Schwetzinger Festival, a few months after their work with the composer and the Aldeburgh premiere (Hänssler Classics 2010). This perhaps is the account that best allows us, in T.S.Eliot’s phrase, “to get the beauty of it hot”. The best modern accounts mostly fall in that Amadeus range, which better reveals the poignancy of that transcendent Passacaglia.
So a reasonably good reissue, but you probably want to add another version of Quartet No 3 if you do not already own one. Since the Decca Amadeus disc also adds the wonderful Quartet No 2, that would make a good companion. It was on a “British Music Collection” CD from 2003, and now available on a presto CD. Here on Alto there is good sound, and although the booklet gives helpful context (even for the absent Second Quartet) it has rather too little to say about the actual music. For the completist needing a comprehensive survey of this music, in fine modern sound, there is the Emperor Quartet on two BIS. For the three numbered quartets only, but on one CD, there is the Takács Quartet (Hyperion).
Roy Westbrook
Performers
Keith Pascoe & Peter Manning, violins; Peter Lale, viola; Andrew Shuman; cello
