By the time he turned
to chamber music in 1842, Schumann was
an extremely experienced composer, particularly
of piano music. And aside from the three
string quartets of Opus 41, composed
in June and July of that year, all Schumann's
chamber music output retains a role
for the piano, his own instrument (and
that of his wife Clara). But these quartets
are masterpieces of the first order,
which reveal Schumann at the height
of his powers. They deserve a wider
currency.
As far as this recording
is concerned, it needs to be said straightaway
that the Ysaÿe Quartet comes up
against very stiff competition from
the St Lawrence Quartet on EMI. Their
recording received most enthusiastic
reviews,
not least from me: ‘compelling, with
flowing lines and beautifully natural
balances, an ideal combination in early
romantic music of this kind’.
That said, the Ysaÿe
recording has strengths of its own.
The most obvious advantage is that they
offer all three quartets rather than
just two of them. (The St Lawrence Quartet
omit No. 2). On a single disc this is
of course a compelling matter, with
an extra twenty minutes of music and
a full playing time of just under eighty
minutes. Therefore there are no compromises
involving a lack of repeats.
The Ysaÿe Quartet
are first rate players and their sound
is never less than pleasing. The chosen
church acoustic is well suited to quartet
sound, and the blending of the ensemble
parts presents a most pleasing result.
If there is a criticism to be made it
is that the textures can be relatively
congested when they are at their most
contrapuntal, as in the development
sections of first movements. However,
this is hardly a significant problem.
As far as tempi are
concerned, the Ysaÿe performances
tend to be just a little faster than
those of the St Lawrence Quartet but
once the performances have begun, they
are compelling, and the music sounds
as if it could not possibly be otherwise.
Each of these three
quartets can be described as a masterpiece
worthy of its creator’s genius, with
abundant musical inventiveness. Perhaps
the A minor has the greatest intensity,
the A major the most lyricism. But in
truth each work has its own integrity
within a structural design which inherits
the classical four-movement formula,
while allowing that new intensity of
feeling which marked the romantic movement
of which Schumann was a leading member.
This repertoire is
not widely recorded, but there are three
notable discs presently available. The
Eroica Quartet on Harmonia Mundi (HMU90
7270), like the Ysaÿe, fit all
three quartets on to a single disc,
whereas the St Lawrence (EMI Classics
5 56797 2) have twenty minutes less
music and only offer Quartets 1 and
3. In these circumstances, for all the
splendid playing and the special eloquence
of the St Lawrence performances, the
new offering by the Ysaÿe Quartet
has the compelling combination of good
performances and the completeness of
all three quartets.
Terry Barfoot
Quatuor Ysaÿe 