Now that these performances are out of copyright it’s
a free for all for these DG traversals. This seven CD Brilliant
box is therefore a straight clone of the corresponding set
issued by DG in their ‘Original Masters’ line on 474 730-2
so if you have that box you have no need to duplicate. At
its enticing price bracket though, it might make a good prospect
for anyone wanting a corpus of performances made by the quartet
in the years between 1951 and 1957.
There’s still some whiskery surface noise on the earliest
recordings not least the Hoffstetter, still then flying under
Haydn’s flag. Its slow movement though is a real charmer.
The Seven Last Words, which is main focus of the first disc,
is notable for the expressive dignity of the first Largo.
Both the leading British quartets of the time, the Amadeus
and the Griller, recorded this – the Amadeus for DG and the
Griller earlier on 78s for Decca. Although their tonal qualities
were very different they both brought immense powers of concentration
to bear and are equally deserving of study, not least the
Amadeus’s truly coruscating concluding Presto. The two Op.74
quartets are mono though in perfectly good sound. Of their
Haydn one of the most immediately impressive performances
is Op.54 No.1, which is in stereo, and sports a wonderfully
warm second movement and a finely chiselled and rhythmically
incisive Menuetto. Hardly less impressive is the powerfully
aerated legato of the Adagio of its opus companion in C major.
The gracioso and contrasting bucolic elements of Op.74 No.1
are well attended to though occasionally one feels a lack
of real weight and body in the sound.
There’s no Mozart in this set – one of their most admired
bodies of recordings – but there is Schubert. The E flat
major D87 quartet is genial, the B flat major D112 fluent
and not – in contradistinction to expectations – over-vibrated
to the detriment of the musical argument. Rosamunde sports
verdant lyricism and is sonorously balanced. The G major
D887 shows the astute structural control exercised by the
foursome especially in one of Schubert’s longest and most
taxing opening movements – eloquently controlled indeed.
Norbert Brainin is quoted in the booklet notes as saying
that their recording of Death and the Maiden was ‘unique’ and
that the Amadeus didn’t sentimentalise it, as other groups
had and did, but presented it dramatically, turning perceptions
of Schubert ‘upside down’. Though he inferred this related
to all their performances maybe he was referring to the stereo
remake. In any case this earlier performance is strong and
powerful though in truth other quartets had explored the
tensile hinterland of the work just as well, if not better,
than the Amadeus. The sole Mendelssohn, the Capriccio Op.81
is delicious.
Current tastes will however probably find their Brahms quartets
the most impressive. This is a question of sonority, weight
and an appropriate expressive gravity. There’s very little
to choose between these performances and the Brahms cycle
that the quartet set down at the end of the decade, other
than questions of recorded sound. In both cases the Amadeus
prove cogent and strong minded, never sentimentalised, guides.
And as such, given the state of play in the Amadeus’ duplicatory
discography, this set is valuable.
Jonathan Woolf
Full listing
CD 1 [70:54]
Attributed to Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809) actually Roman
HOFFSTETTER (1742-1815)
String Quartet in F major Op. 3 No. 5 "Serenade" Hob
III:17 (c.1764)
[13:33]
Joseph HAYDN
Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze (The Seven Last Words of
Our Saviour on the Cross) Op. 51, Hob III:50-56 (1787) [55:16]
CD 2 [59:51]
Joseph HAYDN
String Quartet in G major Op. 54 No. 1 “Tost” (1788)[20:44]
String Quartet in C major Op. 54 No. 2 (1788)[18:22]
String Quartet in B flat major Op. 64 No. 3 (1790)[20:23]
CD 3 [70:16]
Joseph HAYDN
String Quartet in C major Op. 74 No. 1 (1793) [19:46]
String Quartet in G minor Op. 74 No. 3 "The Rider" (Reiterquartett)
(1793) [19:07]
String Quartet in G major Op. 77 No. 1 (1799) [19:46]
String Quartet in B flat major Op. 103 (1803)[11:06]
CD 4 [51:06]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
String Quartet in E flat major Op. posth. 125 No. 1, D87 (1813) [19:07]
String Quartet in B flat major D112 (1814) [26:01]
Felix MENDESLSSOHN (1809-1847)
Capriccio in E minor Op. 81 No.3 (1843) [5:24]
CD 5 [73:51]
Franz SCHUBERT
String Quartet in A minor D804 "Rosamunde" (1824)[30:48]
String Quartet in G major Op. Posth. 161 D887 (1826) [43:02]
CD 6 [76:44]
Franz SCHUBERT
String Quartet in D minor D810 "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (Death and
the Maiden) (1824) [37:09]
Quartettsatz in C minor D703 (1820) [8:31]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
String Quartet in C minor Op. 51 No. 1 (1873) [30:48]
CD 7 [60:55]
Johannes BRAHMS
String Quartet in A minor Op. 51 No. 2 (1873) [29:49]
String Quartet in B flat major Op. 67 (1875) [31:08]
for details
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 93807 [7
CDs: 463:37] 
