BEETHOVEN
String Quartets Op 127 & 135
Skampa Quartet
Supraphon 3464-2 131
[56.40]
distributor
Koch International
Charlote House , 87 Little Ealing Lane, London W5 4 EH
tel.: +44(0)181 832 1800
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In UK, the Skampa Quartet is one of the best known Czech string quartets,
having enjoyed a presitigious Residency at Wigmore Hall. The accuracy of
their playing, notably that of its leader in some of the mercilessly exposed
passages in these two great, late quartets of Beethoven, is not due to careful
editing in the recording process, as
Seen&Heard has been pleased to discover
in their
live
appearances. The Eb is perhaps the most relaxed and genial
of the last six, which is in the conventional four movements. Slow movements
of great profundity are at the heart of both this 1824 work and of the more
concentrated final F major quartet of two years later, in which the gravity
of the latter's is thrust aside by the enigmatic finale's arduous
decision, with its motifs annotated Must it be? It must be! (possibly
no more than a joke) combined with contrapuntal mastery of the highest order.
These two contrasted quartets make an ideal coupling and this version can
be highly recommended, provided you are not amongst those listeners who feel
a need to experience a sense of struggle in performances of these late
masterpieces by their deaf composer.
Peter Grahame Woolf
