These two volumes restore
the Beethoven's recordings of the late
Shostakovich Quartets to international
currency. Though their recordings are
highly respected, not least for the
long and intimate professional relationship
with the composer who dedicated so many
quartets to them collectively or individually,
one senses that the various Borodin
performances have long since eclipsed
them in general esteem. Given the higher
profile of that group, not least on
disc and in the West, that's inevitable.
And given the warmer sonority of the
successive Borodin groups and their
more overt expression that's also not
surprising.
Still, the Beethoven Quartet recorded the set
on LP and were also taped in an almost complete cycle for radio - the Fifth is absent - which
can found on Consonance 81-3005-9. Their
performances are best measured against
those of the Borodin (1962-67, incomplete)
and 1978-83 now newly released on Melodiya
Mel CD 10 01077 and reviewed by me here.
And one must on no account omit reference
to the cycle recorded by the Taneyev
Quartet, whose set has been remastered
by Aulos.
The Taneyev famously premiered the last
quartet after Sergei Shirinsky of the
Beethoven Quartet had died following
a rehearsal.
Melodiya's own Beethoven
Quartet cycle is an impressive one.
These late quartets were written between
1966 and 1974 and recorded between 1969
and 1971 and 1974-75. To put it broadly
and somewhat crudely the Beethoven stands
at a rough mid-point tonally between
the warmly vibrated intensity of the
Borodin and the bleak leanness of the
Taneyev. In the case of the Eleventh
Quartet the Beethoven take a considerably
quicker view of the music than the Borodin
in their traversals, though their tempo
relationships are much more stable than
that of the Taneyev. Each group takes
a radically different stance on the
seven movements, vesting them with a
profoundly different sense of weight
and sensibility. Listening to each group
is a richly rewarding if sometimes frustrating
affair. When it comes to the final movement
the Beethoven is decisive, quick and
almost brutal in its response. The Taneyev
remains raw and edgy-toned with an uneasy
rasp to its corporate sonority. The
Borodin, predictably, takes the most
horizontal view, richly keening of tone.
The two-movement Twelfth
was dedicated to the group's first violinist
Dmitri Tsiganov, the man responsible
for the violin and piano arrangements
of the Preludes. It strikes me that
the Borodin, notwithstanding their close
association with this repertoire, cedes
to the Beethoven in matters of tempo
and direction. The intensity and angular
folkloric element seems to be better
integrated in the Beethoven's recording.
And the long second movement works better
as an architectural entity as well in
the hands of Shostakovich's most intimate
associates; nor do they respond to the
rather martial goose-stepping of the
Taneyev whose metrical drive sounds
hard-pressed.
The Thirteenth Quartet
is once more a locus of profoundly differing
approaches. It's wise not to be prescriptive or definitive about
such matters as well. The Taneyev race through it in 15:22, the
Borodin in 1981 take a far more sedate 19:56 - a dramatically
different, radical difference - and the Beethoven
in 1971, at around the time of the premiere,
took 18:10. The Taneyev sound ruthless
and rebellious. The Beethoven is more
reflective and mournful. And the Borodin,
1981 vintage, find something spiritual,
almost a sense of piety, in the music.
Their intense raptness is profoundly
impressive with blanched tone and bleached
feeling alternating with great string
weight. Nevertheless the Beethoven gave
the premiere of a work dedicated to
Vadim Borisovsky, the quartet's violist
who died in 1972, and their greater
incisiveness brings a moving sense of
direction and proportion to the quartet.
The second volume gives
us the last two quartets. They approach
the opening of No.14 with something
like joy, the lightly sprung rhythm
meshing with lightly bowed and wristy
affection. The Taneyev enjoy a darker
melos, more abrupt, and the Borodin
1981 vintage less easy going, more urgent
and rhythmically decisive. The Beethoven
contrasts this with by far the most
aristocratic and Mravinskian Adagio
I've ever heard. It makes no superfluous
gestures, cuts to the quick but makes
its point with decisive energy. This
patrician reading finds no favour with
the warmth of the Borodin or the tonal
austerity of the Taneyev.
The last quartet gives
all players a problem in extrapolating
its six adagios. Here, once again, the
Beethoven seem to me to reach into the
music as few have or could. The opening
movement, that long unbroken span, is
unfolded with a beauty tinged with resignation.
The depth is palpable, the intensity
generated entirely musically. By now
Tsiganov was the only original member
still playing in the quartet but they'd
acquired an excellent cellist in Yevgeni
Altman. The Borodins always played this
beautifully but there's something just
a touch too keen about their playing
here and intensity dissipates through
over promotion of expressive weight.
The Taneyev play well but there's little
of the Beethoven's beauty, though you'll
find their second movement uncompromisingly
stark and aggressive. The Beethoven
by direct comparison are the more human,
the Borodin taking something of an equidistant
position. When we come to the final
movement we find these same differences
of approach. The Borodin are marvellous
and catch the passionate strangeness
of it. But the Beethoven find something
of a Janaček-like sweep and an
altogether graver protocol. Though the
Taneyev premiered this work, and their
performance merits the closest study,
they don't quite manage to mediate between
its acerbity and reflection quite as
well as the other two groups.
The recordings were
very serviceable products of their time.
They were not especially warmly recorded,
which perhaps accentuates a degree of
edge to the corporate sonority, though
they're nothing like as razory as the
Taneyev. Lovers of warm sonorities would
of course turn in preference to the
Borodin but that's not the same as recommending
a performance. The Beethoven radio performances
on Consonance are very important documents
but sometimes marred by frequency hums
and the like. The commercial recording
of the Fifteenth Quartet was available
on Le Chant du Monde PR 7254043 coupled
with the Glinka Quartet's recording
of No.14.
Authority is matched
by expression in these performances.
If you've not yet heard them I would
strongly encourage you to do so.
Jonathan Woolf
AVAILABLE AGAIN
Dmitri
SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Kondrashin conducts the Fifteen Symphonies
Now
with The Sun Shines on Our Motherland
op. 90 The Execution of Stepan Razin
op. 119 Violin Concerto Nr.2 (with David
Oistrakh) Artur Eisen, bass (13); Evgenia
Tselovalnik (sop) (14); Evgeny Nesterenko,
(bass) (14) Choirs of the Russian Republic/Alexander
Yourlov (2, 3, 13) 
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/Kirill
Kondrashin Rec. Moscow 19 July 1972
(1); 29 Nov 1972 (2); 12 Nov 1972 (3);
1962 (4); 27 Mar 1968 (5); 15 Sept 1967
(6); 7 Mar 1975 (7); 4 Nov 1967 (8);
20 Mar 1965 (9); 24 Sept 1973 (10);
9 July 1973 (11); 13 Dec 1972 (12);
23 Aug 1974 (13); 24 Nov 1974 (14);
27 May 1975 (15). ADD
MELODIYA MEL CD 10 01065
When
released by Aulos Rob Barnett named
these recordings the Gold Standard but
it seemed impossible to get hold of
the discs. These have now been re-released
by Melodiya. ... see original
review Purchase here
£50 postage paid.
for
details
