American Art Quartet
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
String Quartet No. 53 in D major ‘The Lark’ Hob. III:63, Op. 64/5 (1790) [17:11]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Clarinet Quintet in A, K581 (1789) [27:01]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 Harp (1809) [29:41]
Benny Goodman (clarinet), American Art Quartet
rec. 1951-1953
BIDDULPH 85011-2 [75:47]
The last time I reviewed recordings made by the American Art Quartet was in the context of a Sony box devoted to the Juilliard Quartet’s early Columbias (review), as the label sometimes released LPs which coupled both groups. The repertoire there covered contemporary American works in the shape of the First Quartets by Lukas Foss and Leon Kirchner, but the American Art Quartet also recorded Ernst Toch’s Piano Quintet, with Toch at the piano, and Quartet No. 10 (the London String Quartet had recorded Toch’s Twelfth a little earlier), John Vincent’s First Quartet, Turina and some encore pieces, like Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile. First violinist Eudice Shapiro and cellist Victor Gottlieb also recorded independently in smaller non-quartet works, as you’ll find in that Sony box.
The group was led by Shapiro, with second violinist Robert Sushel (as the name is often encountered, or Shushel, as Biddulph’s documentation, and other sources, spell it), violist Virginia Majewski (viola) and Gottlieb, Shapiro’s husband. Like the Juilliard, the American Art also recorded older music and it’s this that has been collated in this enterprising release sourced from one RCA Victor LP (Haydn and Beethoven) and a Columbia, which houses Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. It represents the entirety of their standard repertoire on disc.
I happen to find the American Art Quartet somewhat warmer interpreters of this repertoire than the more highly touted, more often recorded and much longer-lived Juilliard. Their Haydn ‘Lark’ is notable for the soaring eloquence of Eudice Shapiro, one of the finest first violinists of the time, the anchoring strength of Gottlieb, the sensitivity of phrasing in the slow movement and the vigorous, communicative finale. The only demerit is the rather boxy recorded quality. This was coupled with Beethoven’s Op.74, and again the c.1953 mono recording is dry and close and doesn’t really quite allow the corporate string tone to expand to advantage. Nevertheless, the robust and healthy playing is delightful, with Virginia Majewski a focal part of the success of the reading.
Benny Goodman had apparently recorded the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with the Pro Arte Quartet a year before his first traversal with the Budapest. In any case, the results weren’t approved for release. This 1951 recording is the middle one of his three commercial recordings, with the Boston Symphony String Quartet LP, made for RCA, to follow some years hence. The 1951 recording was made soon after he had begun his tutorship under Reginald Kell (who recorded it in America with the Fine Arts). I don’t happen to like any of Goodman’s three recordings, so my prejudice should be borne in mind, but here again he and the group are not much helped by the boxy, edgy recorded sound, which puts a tonal dampener on things. Consequently, the Larghetto is really not especially moving.
One should temper one’s relative disappointment with the quality of the recording acoustic with admiration for the intrinsic ability of the American Art Quartet. Rather unusually, no transfer engineer is credited but Tully Potter’s notes are highly accomplished.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous review: Stephen Greenbank
