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Fanfare
Magazine BARTÓK
String Quartets: Nos. 1-6 The
Penderecki String Quartet was formed in Poland in 1986, at the urging
of the eponymous composer; it soon moved to Canada and has been in residence
at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario-where these recordings
were made-for 14 years. The Penderecki specializes in new music and
has played over 100 premieres. It has also made a few well-received
recordings of the standard repertoire over the years; in Fanfare 25:1,
Bernard Jacobson called it "an ensemble of formidable power and.
. . keen musical sensitivity" and acclaimed its Brahms op. 51 a
"triumphant success". A recent personnel change has Paul Pulford
playing cello in the first four Bartok Quartets and his replacement
Simon Fryer playing the final two. Violinists Jerzy Kaplanek and Jeremy
Bell alternate at first chair, joined by violist Christine Vlajk. In
the same issue, John W. Lambert "counted [it] among the best"
and noted perceptively that the alternation of violinists enhances "artistic
satisfaction for the players, which in turn tends to keep the ensemble's
music making at higher levels." The change in cellists in the middle
of this project has had no noticeable effect. All
of Bartók's compositions are closely tied to his lifelong investigations
of folk music, Hungarian and otherwise; the string quartets are no exception.
They also share in his characteristic intensity: the serious moments
very serious, the humorous moments still tightly strung. The Penderecki
triumphs anew in these aspects, sounding like pure Bartók at
every moment. But another quality that makes the Bartók quartets
one of the great cycles is its variety; the six are spaced throughout
the composer's mature life and represent the evolution of all his music.
Here these players are less successful: each movement gets an impressive
performance, even each quartet, but the entire cycle needs to be more
than just the sum of its parts. Their intensity is too steady; they
neither lighten up enough at appropriate moments nor dig deep enough
at the other end of the scale. The listener can pin down just what is
missing only by comparing these performances to the great recorded cycles
which for me are by the Emerson Quartet and the Juilliard (the second
of its three). In the Allegro molto finale of the Third Quartet, the
Penderecki outplays the Juilliard, although at a less demanding tempo,
and there lies a clue: the Penderecki needs to take more risks, to be
willing to sacrifice the quality of a note or the unity of an attack
to something more important: the essence of the music. The Allegro molto
capriccioso movement of the Second Quartet is neither as amusing as
the Juilliard nor as sparkling as the Emerson. In spite of playing the
First Quartet's closing Allegro vivace faster than either of the other
ensembles, the Penderecki does not muster quite as much energy as the
Emerson or the range of colors of the Juilliard. Although the Canadian
group's readings adhere closely to the scores, its members do have interpretive
ideas of their own; e.g., at bar 51 of the First Quartet's opening movement
(at 6:25), the cellist opens up the pp pizzicato chords almost to arpeggios.
The
recorded sound is excellent, but has a few quirks. The opening of disc
1 has an excessive background aura, as if a breeze were blowing across
a microphone; it's difficult to tell if it is an exterior noise or a
function of a reverberant acoustic setting. Oddly, Juilliard 2 suffers
the same problem at the same spot, suggesting that it might have to
do with being the first take of a recording project. The Penderecki's
instruments are up close; the recording locates them precisely - violins
far left, viola far right, cello spread across the rear center-as if
the microphones were in among the players; nevertheless, it captures
the group's tight ensemble. There
have been innumerable sets of Bartók quartet recordings over
the years, and the Penderecki immediately joins the top tier, alongside
such notables as the Hungarian, Végh, and Tackás Quartets.
The Emerson (DG 242 3657) and Juilliard 2 define their own universes.
Keeping track of the three Juilliard cycles has always been a tricky
business: 1.
(1949, monaural: Mann, Koff, Hillyer, Winograd): available on Pearl
0147. |
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