Two reissued recordings of selected Schubert string quartets make a strong impression, the Artemis Quartet driving Death and the Maiden to the edge of an abyss, the tempo fast to a fault, the mode of attack dangerously forceful, especially in the outer movements. Yes, there’s the odd moment of repose but that never lasts long enough to facilitate winding down. And the quieter music is invariably just as tense, the opening of the second movement bloodless and dark. Turn then to the Cherubini Quartet and aside from a slower, more flexible overall tempo, the fearsome onslaught favoured by the Artemis is tamed, the range of expressive inflection marginally wider.

The great G major Quartet witnesses similar contrasts in approach: the broadly drawn opening chord meaty if overwrought with the Artemis, the second subject quietly lilting one minute, fervently busy the next, not unlike the Takács Quartet recording that I reviewed in these pages in the July issue. The Cherubini’s strengths are in the way they negotiate rests and pauses, their playing of the quiet first subject utterly rapt. Once the allegro element takes over they’re less concentrated than the Artemis, more conventionally Schubertian, you might say. In the second movement the Artemis open emphatically; then, come the dramatic fortissimo intervention (with its sudden lightning strikes and shivery tremolos), they take no prisoners. Their Scherzo is chilled and elfin, their finale extremely dynamic, more so than the Cherubini.

Turning to Schumann’s three quartets, the Cherubini offer us rewarding accounts of Nos 2 and 3, generously adding a sunny account of Dvořák’s Serenade in D, where Sabine Meyer’s wind ensemble is supplemented by players including Cherubini cellist Manuel Fischer-Dieskau. Schumann’s Piano Quintet with Christian Zacharias is more emphatic than fleet, whereas the group’s integral set of the Mendelssohn quartets is warmly perceptive. Switch then to the Artemis in Mendelssohn’s Op 80 – the wildly demonstrative quartet that Felix composed in the wake of his sister Fanny’s death – and you’re in another world, one that anyone fresh from losing a loved one will recognise. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more compelling account of what is, surely, Mendelssohn’s most uncharacteristically dramatic work.

As to the rest, the Artemis depth-charge their way through works by Mozart, Brahms, the Second Viennese School, Shostakovich, Zemlinsky, Dvořák (including a previously unpublished American Quartet, viola player Friedemann Weigle’s last recording), Janáček, Ligeti, Piazzolla and, as the group’s crowning glory recordings-wise, a complete Beethoven cycle. If proof of that claim is needed, try Op 130, the warmly loving Cavatina being gatecrashed by the immense, all-encompassing Grosse Fuge, the ultimate musical example of shattered false security. So sure are the Artemis that this is the route to Op 130’s closure, they don’t even offer us Beethoven’s blandly tuneful rewritten ending as an alternative or encore. Good on ’em, I say. If Beethoven had intended to compose a divertimento (such as it sounds with the new finale), that’s what he would have called it. Anyway, that’s my view.

The Cherubini Quartet offer us, in addition to the compositions already stated, Haydn, Mozart, Messiaen and vocal works with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Barbara Hendricks. The Cherubini Quartet disbanded in 1997, whereas in May 2021 the Artemis announced a hiatus in their activities, with the intention to regroup in the future. Both ensembles have much to offer, but on the evidence of these two collections, the Artemis have the edge in terms of interpretative charisma. It’s perhaps worth adding in this context Warner Classics’ recommendable 11‑CD collection of their recordings by the Belcea Quartet (5419 72114-3), which includes the complete string quartets of Britten and Bartók. Buy all three sets and you have vibrant young players in a generous cross section of key repertoire.

Turning to Bartók’s piano music, Andreas Bach’s recording of the complete Mikrokosmos, released in 2022 (I reviewed it that September) but which had been ‘on ice’ since 2016, had the two piano parts of the duo pieces No 43a, 55 and 68 recorded individually by Bach, with the help of interpretative coordination via headphones, and then copied over one another. Furthermore, in Nos 65, 74b, 95b and 127, mezzo-soprano Aliya Iskhakova sings the vocal line, Bartók having been keen to underline the important role of singing in piano lessons. For listening samples, my advice is to turn to disc 9 – Mikrokosmos Books 4‑6 – and to track 12, ‘Melody in the Mist’, track 13, ‘Wrestling’, track 18, ‘Bulgarian Rhythm’ or track 33, ‘New Hungarian Folk Song’ (with voice). All illustrate Bach’s acute sense of rhythm, pace and colour, as well as his ability to make free with the music without causing any unwanted distortion. Happily all of Bach’s Bartók now sits in a single mid-price nine-CD set, his performances expressively wide-ranging, often on a level with Zoltán Kocsis or György Sándor (the Sonata, Out of Doors and the various folk-song-derived works are exceptional) and technically secure. I’d recommend them thoroughly.

Finally, the 18th-century Czech composer and pianist Jan Ladislav Dussek. It’s been said that Dussek’s music pursued an independent line of development, one that anticipated but did not influence early Romanticism. Brilliant’s collection of period performances includes some that are impressive. Disc 6 features Viviana Sofronitsky, Vladimir’s daughter. By way of sampling, you might care to alight at the Grand Sonata, Op 75 No 3 (disc 6), an impressive piece by any standards, sympathetically played.

The recordings

The Complete Erato Recordings 1996-2018 Artemis Quartet (Warner Classics (23 CDs) 5419 76433-0)

The Complete Warner Classics Recordings Cherubini Quartet (Warner Classics 5419 78086-6)

Bartók: Complete Works for Piano Solo A Bach (Hänssler Classic HC24001)

Dussek: Complete Piano Sonatas & Sonatinas Various artists (Brilliant 95503)

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Gramophone. Whether you want to enjoy Gramophone online, explore our unique Reviews Database or our huge archive of issues stretching back to April 1923, or simply receive the magazine through your door every month, we've got the perfect subscription for you. Find out more at magsubscriptions.com