The more one studies these works, the more miraculous they seem; not just as structures and designs, but as personal testimonies to dream, aspiration, conflict, self-overcoming, resignation and, ultimately, the eternal question of 'whence and whereto' (the Sixth Quartet's inconclusive pizzicato close). However, like all true masterpieces, quartets Bartok's quartets (or at least the last four) are musically greater than their potential realization in performance, which is perhaps why no single recorded encounter has quite succeeded in surveying the vast spectrum of their expressive language. Last December I thought Hyperion's New Budapest cycle sensitive and well recorded, but found it wanting in terms of confidence and spontaneity. Now the Dutch company Canyon Classics bring us a 1991 cycle, recorded in the Nyuzen Cosmo Hall, Toyama, Japan. However, it is far from the answer to our prayers, and fails ultimately to challenge the best listed rivals: the Emerson, Vegh and Lindsay Quartets.
The highly chromatic First Quartet comes across as fairly solid but rather po-faced; there is no lack of drive, but little in the way of true poetry or imagination. The Second is better, with a fluent opening Moderato and clearly delineated musical paragraphs (note, too, an anticipation of the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta at 8'49'', and the bagpipe-like chords that follow). Yet the second movement suffers-like other movements later on in the cycle-from patches of rhythmic ambiguity and loose ensemble, and there is a notational slip-up at 0'14''. In the Third, certain glissandos are under-projected, and I noted instances of approximate intonation, rhythmic sloppiness and dynamic understatement. The Quartet's internal balance, too, occasionally tends to lopsidedness, so that key chords are imperfectly blended: this isn't 'easy' music by any means and is apt to lose focus if its constituent parts aren't adequately clarified. The Fourth Quartet suffers from relatively slow reflexes, although the centrepiece of its five-stage 'arch' (the Non troppo lento third movement) is sensitively turned and the finale fairly energetic. The 'insect' movements, though-the microcosmic prestissimo ''con sordino'' and the Allegro pizzicato-are a bit slapdash and certainly no match for the watertight Emerson.
The last two quartets invariably fare best, and indeed they do so here: the Fifth's Adagio molto has a pleasingly full sonority, but the Alla bulgarese third movement really does require a more secure rhythmic grasp than the Bartok display on this occasion. Quartet No. 6 is as musically indestructible as Bach: you'd have to be either clumsy or very stubborn to obstruct its flow of warmth, humour and pathos. And to be fair, only a relative lack of true pianissimo tone vitiates against a generally responsive performance-although it's not one I would place above the Vegh or the Gramophone Award-winning Emerson versions.
So, no real recommendation; a state of affairs that isn't helped by having the six quartets needlessly spread over three full-price CDs (tempos are generally faster than the New Budapest's, so Hyperion's admirable disc layout would have worked here, too). Also, the documentation misleads by suggesting-on the jewel-box and booklet track listing, but not in the text-that the Fourth Quartet has only four movements, whereas of course it has five. Taken overall, you would be far better advised to stay with the Emerson, Vegh or Lindsay; and if it were a case of choosing between the Bartok and the New Budapest Quartet, I would opt for the latter-in spite of my previously voiced reservations. Incidentally, it is a good ten years since the Juilliard Quartet recorded their last Bartok cycle (CBS, 2/83-nla), and if a new one were to reach the standards achieved by their recent Sony Classical Schoenberg (2/90) and Dutilleux (3/94) recordings, then it would surely sweep the board.'