Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Quartets
Juilliard String Quartet
rec. 1964-1970, Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City. ADD
SONY CLASSICS 19075992332 [9 CDs: 505:33]
These are generally swift, aggressive performances
of remarkable brilliance and virtuosity from America’s premier
string quartet, recorded in excellent analogue sound. The personnel
of the quartet changed slightly over the six years when the recordings
were made but its effect, approach and sonority remained much the same,
drawing accolades from the press and public alike – once they
had become acclimatised to its very up-front and American attack. According
to Tully Potter’s excellent notes, they were even booed in Amsterdam
in their early days, but folk soon acclimatised and warmed to their
manner. Integration and intonation are flawless, although early reviews
referred to their “brashness” and “explosiveness”
- albeit in admiring terms; certainly the vigour of their playing and
the energy it generates are qualities which cannot fail to strike the
listener.
One effect of this is to minimise the extent to which the earlier quartets
owe any debt to predecessors such as Haydn and enhance their more daring
and innovative qualities. For the most part, their interpretative choices
are to my ears impeccable, although I find that there are one or two
points where I miss the profundity which a more reflective manner engenders;
one such instance is their playing of the justly famous Cavatina Adagio
in Op. 130, which lacks something of the flow and meditative quality
required to bring out its sublimity. In my experience, no-one captures
the timeless serenity of that music as well as the Medici on Nimbus;
too many quartets rush the pace as the Juilliard Quartet does here and
the “molto espressivo” instruction is neglected. On the
other hand, the stately beauty of suspended harmonies and courtly, deliberately
Mozartian, progressions in the Heiliger Dankgesang in Op. 132
are delivered to perfection and, at the other extreme, the fierce, even
baffling, modernity of the Große Fuge is given full rein, even
if the recorded sound there is somewhat harsh.
My loyalties when it comes to recommendations for complete quartets remain primarily with the above-mentioned Medici and the Alban Berg sets but this clearly has much to offer, despite my reservations.
Ralph Moore
Contents
Early String Quartets
CD 1 [49:28]
Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18/1 (1798-1800) [26:46]
Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18/2 (1798-1800) [22:35]
CD 2 [46:36]
Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18/3 (1798-1800) [24:40]
Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18/4 (1798-1800) [21:48]
CD 3 [54:01]
Quartet No. 5 in A major, Op. 18/5 (1798-1800) [27:59]
Quartet No. 6 in B flat major, Op. 18/6 (1798-1800) [25:54]
Middle String Quartets
CD 4 [38:34]
Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59/1 ‘Rasumovsky’ (1805/6) [38:32]
CD 5 [62:04]
Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59/2 ‘Rasumovsky’ (1805/6) [33:32]
Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59/3 ‘Rasumovsky’ (1805/6) [28:25]
CD 6 [51:52]
Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, Op. 74 ‘The Harp’ (pub. 1809) [30:45]
Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 ‘Serioso’ (1810) [20:59]
Late String Quartets
CD 7 [76:32]
Quartet No. 12 in E flat major, Op. 127 (1824-25) [38:19]
Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 (1825-26) [38:06]
CD 8 [55:22]
Große Fuge in B flat major, Op. 133 (1825-26) [14:40]
Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826) [40:00]
CD 9 [71:04]
Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132 (1825) [44:52]
Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 (1826) [26:05]
Performers
Robert Mann (violin I); Earl Carlyss/Isidore Cohen (violin II); Raphael Hillyer/Samuel Rhodes (viola); Claus Adam (cello)
