Fritz Busch? Who cares? The hard, diamond-like timbre of the two violins (the leader's role is shared democratically) is far removed from the breadth of tone one might associate with a David Oistrakh, just as cellist David Finckel is no Rostropovich. Going further back, the Budapest String Quartet recorded op. But these recordings reveal surprising new facets of a body of work that is not going to stand still. If their playing can be a tad pedagogic, it is also precise, faultless and musically poetic. Other answers have covered much of the territory. The choice is between Sándor Végh‘s quartet (1952), Zoltán Székely‘s Hungarian String Quartet (1955) and the transcendent Budapest Quartet, which among many lasting legacies, established the rules by which quartets resolve disputes and split the money, legislating also that wives and partners were never to be allowed into rehearsal. 76 in the 1950s, as did the Amadeus Quartet later on; nothing mass-produced or unconsidered about those versions. (Sacha Schneider was in it twice.) 127, the Beethoven Quartet of Moscow are at their best in that one, as are the Smetana Quartet of Prague, especially in their first recording. Its intimate character has encouraged many contemporary performers and composers to focus on this medium which has produced countless masterpieces in the contemporary period of classical music. Wilanow Quartet - cover modern works by Slowinski, Gorecki and Meyer - very typical repertoire of the Kronos Quartet Cuarteto Latinoamericano - listen to the female vocalist over string quartet in Ginastera's works. The cellist Emanuel Brabec was principal of the Vienna Phil and teacher of the period instrument propagator Nikolaus Harnoncourt. IMO, one of the great core American quartets was the Cleveland Quartets whose Beethoven recordings on RCA and Telarc were marvelous. The Pro Arte Quartet (Latin for “For Art”) , in existence for over a century, has an amazing story. Sensibly, they don’t try to fake a Hungarian accent: instead, their awareness of the music’s roots is incorporated into a wider expressive language. Let’s talk Hungarian for a moment among ourselves. The Amadeus cling more to a definedly Viennese sweetness, while the Barylls are muscular, nonchalant, unGermanic in the glint of humour that pervades the Scherzo. I would have thought they would be past their prime by then. Get your Busches disentangled! So might I add the Smetana Quartet’s 1961 recording for consideration? Fritz Busch? A Listener’s Guide to the String Quartet Repertory. Attenuated inflections are honoured virtually to the letter, textures carefully differentiated, musical pauses intuitively well-timed and inner voices nearly always transparent. When all the paint has been dried, when all the stone has been carved, music shall remain, and we shall work with what remains. ', 'The Takács evidently appreciate this music both as musical argument and as sound. There was a joke going around at the time: I spent a fortune on deodorant before I realized that people don't like me anyway. ', 'The crazed tarantella that closes the quartet is a tour de force, raw, visceral and with an emotional immediacy that is almost unbearable. Probably the best way to assess different approaches to the first of Beethoven’s late quartets is to group them by the traditions I outlined yesterday in When Beethoven Became Unplayable. Theirs is my favorite Beethoven quartet playing. The Belcea, Miro and Kuss Quartets are also in contention for the fastest and the fittest. Peter: you are right to mention the Czechs, whom I heard a few times in person: the Smetana and the Janacek. Three Russians are a revolution. By Nashvillebill in forum Community Forum, By Sebastien Melmoth in forum Classical Music Discussion Polls, By Dont in forum Classical Music Discussion, By Yagan Kiely in forum Classical Music Discussion, By utmusic in forum Classical Music Discussion, All times are GMT +1. Their 1946 recording of the opus 127 sounds somehow disembodied from European traditions, beautifully played with a whispery pianissimo. Compare them to other fine Viennese quartets – the Weller, the Hagen – and you’ll hear the class distinction. Baryilli was concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1939 and his quartet were resident at the Musikverein. Pichler, in later years, became a rather good conductor. The Quartetto Italiano in 1996? The slow movement is better known in its string orchestral version, Adagio for Strings. Four Russians are the Budapest String Quartet! The login page will open in a new tab. By using this site you consent to this use in our Cookie & Privacy Policy | Hosted & Managed in the UK by RocketWP, © 2020 Norman Lebrecht. They were resident in Belgium, took a trip to America before WWII, and were performing in Madison, Wisconsin when Hitler invaded Belgium. As the 21st century dawned, quartets got fitter, quicker, lither, smarter. The Budapest Quartet was Hungarian, at least in part, only until 1936. Tradition does not always run in predictable lines. An interesting summary but I would not list the Budapest String Quartet – at least not the iteration of it that made all those fine recordings for Columbia Records – as among the Hungarian ensembles, in spite of its name. This includes your “transcendent” recording made in 1952. If Alexander Schneider was in the Budapest Quartet twice, wouldn’t it be a quintet? It is however no longer affiliated with the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Of course, one person’s idea of something obvious will be another’s off-the-beaten-track, but the 10 below, we can be fairly sure, will have a special place in the hearts of most classical music collectors. After that, it consisted of four Russian Jews until it disbanded in 1967. No mention of the inspirational Lindsay string quartet. As to the Budapest Quartet, they took the name over from a then defunct Hungarian quartet. The Emerson made a fad out of standing up long before the Artemis. ', 'Collectors familiar with any of the earlier sets of the quartets may not warm immediately to the Belcea’s exceptionally dramatic way with the music’s contrasting materials. Try their glassy sul ponticello at the end of Op 131’s Scherzo, or the many instances where plucked and bowed passages are fastidiously balanced. For fans of the string quartet repertoire, the new Quadrants modern string quartet collection is heaven. https://www.wisconsinacademy.org/magazine/brussels-love. Four Russians are the Budapest String Quartet.”. The guide offers one listener’s catalogue of the best string quartets, from Haydn through the 1990’s. -that late? 3 for String Quartet and Electronic Tape, F. Magle - Contemporary Classical Composer, Organist and Pianist. ', 'The Diotima Quartet claim the first recording of the new Bärenreiter edition (not yet published, to my knowledge) of Janácek’s Intimate Letters Quartet. The Arditti Quartet & of yesteryear, the LaSalle Quartet. Sasha Schneider, second violin of the Budapest Quartet, was instrumental in the formation of the Guarneri Quartet, who may be considered heirs of the Budapest Quartet. Then, of course, there’s the fine tradition of Czech quartet playing. Cuarteto Casals shatter a glass ceiling of historic inhibitions and camouflage nothing. The concertmaster resigned. I choose the Budapest Quartet of my youth and the current Belcea. Welcome to the 107th work in the Slipped Disc/Idagio Beethoven Edition String Quartet No. Gramophone is brought to you by Mark Allen Group ', 'Most arresting of all is the slow movement, for these musicians a sequence of pain and abraded nerve-ends behind a smokescreen of Andante cantabile. When it comes to choosing, the key question is how much one values a sense of tradition over the pace of modern life. 12 in E flat major op. Their playing isn’t as glossy, perhaps, as other recent entrants into this field, such as the Jerusalem Quartet, but they have a powerful understanding of the music’s structure, coupled to superlative technical skill. Recording the opus 127 1997, there is an edge and daring to the playing that can only come from constant thrust and very great trust between the players. It incorporates great recordings of some of the most-performed masterpieces. The Takacs account of opus 127 would have to come near the top of any shortlist. This is just unreal. Enshrined herein is a rare order of musicianship. Such is the intensity of the playing that by the end of the disc you, too, are quite exhausted. It’s the music that counts. The Berlin-based Artemis Quartet, for instance, made a fad out of playing standing up. Other Hungarian ensembles include Attila Falvay’s Kodály Quartet (1998), the Bartok Quartet (2014) and the outstanding Takacs Quartet, which is led by an Englishman, Edward Dusinberre, who has written an immersive book about playing Beethoven quartets.

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