Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
String Quartet No.4 in C minor Op.18 No.4 [23:28]
String Quartet No.5 in A major Op.18 No.5 [30:13]
String Quartet No.6 in B flat major Op.18 No.6 [25:11]
Chiaroscuro Quartet:
rec. 9-12 September 2019, Sendesaal, Bremen, Germany
Stereo/Surround 5.0, reviewed in surround
BIS BIS-2498 SACD [79:55]
This is the best recording of any Beethoven Quartets I have heard in a long time, not because it is, unusually, a period performance on gut strings and historical bows, or that it is superbly well recorded in surround, but because these players have dared to completely rethink these well-known pieces and turned them into a series of wonderful surprises. Beethoven’s quartets are core repertoire for all string quartets and an astonishing number of recordings exist. Never a month passes without more being recorded, often with great success. I think of a superb series by the Elias Quartet I heard at Southampton’s Turner Sims concert hall, currently being committed to disc from Wigmore Hall performances. Every performance was grounds for celebration. I recently obtained the Pražák Quartet’s set on SACD; it, too, is magnificent. The Italian Quartet wowed us all in the 60s and 70s with their superbly recorded and still treasured cycle on Philips LPs. The Chiaroscuro Quartet are currently Associate Artists at the Turner Sims and we have been able to hear numerous performances close up. These Beethoven performances are exactly what we have been hearing in terms of apparent spontaneity and originality. I say “apparent” because they cannot be playing with such freedom and imagination without intensive rehearsal. Nonetheless, they seem to have an almost telepathic ability to stay together through extreme changes of tempo and dynamics.
Enough panegyric, what of some details? The C minor Quartet was the first in the second volume of Opus 18 published. It gained enormous popularity, so much so that Beethoven became irritated that it was obscuring his later quartets. It opens with grim determination and the first violin may be described as painting halos around the darker music. Richard Wigmore’s excellent notes describe this as a “charming” effect. Well, not in the hands of Alina Ibragimova, who soars up and dives down with apparent abandon almost as if trying to escape. It is very dramatic and characterises her whole approach to the movement, with extreme dynamics from the faintest breath of a note to quite violent moments. The whole movement sounds newly painted. Her colleagues all have their solo moments, the cellist Claire Thirion playing out the most glorious phrases as if she alone has something important to say. The menuetto third movement has the most filigree playing and a freedom of phrasing that turns each repetition into something new. Not being a player myself, I do not have the vocabulary to describe all the imaginative touches I hear, but any attentive listener will be richly rewarded with new insights into a work they probably thought they knew well. In the opening Allegro of the A major Ibragimova’s solo passages often exhibit the subtlest of portamento as well as distinct changes of colour within a phrase. She is not alone; the violist Emilie Hörnlund duets with the leader, moulding the phrases in her own way. Second violin Pablo Hernán Benedi also has points to make in the musical conversation. This is typical of the Chiaroscuro’s whole approach. One does wonder how they arrive at these interpretative subtleties; are they rehearsed or spontaneous? They sound very much the latter; the result of a complete mutual understanding of the direction of the music. This is quartet playing of astonishing technical control which always adds to the music and never gets in the way.
The set has to be heard no matter how many other recordings one possesses. If it goes on to encompass the whole series - and who knows if it will? - it could become the period performance cycle against which others in the future are measured. Recording, in surround and stereo, notes and presentation are immaculate: an object lesson in how such things ought always to be done.
Dave Billinge
