First, a suggestion for a Christmas musical quiz. Put on the last track of the third disc in this significant set and ask “Who was the King, who was the composer, and who, the arranger?” The answers are, respectively, Solomon, Handel and Beethoven, the ‘prompt’ being Beethoven’s 1798 arrangement of the fugue from Solomon’s Overture. You might also sample sections of either the first or second movements of Beethoven’s F major String Quartet in the ‘Amenda’ version, where musical focusing and argument approach – but do not quite equal – the tighter statements of the final revision. DG’s package also includes two rigorously worked Preludes and Fugues (1794-5) and an early Menuett in A flat, the former nicely turned by the Mendelssohn Quartet, the latter – plus the Solomon fugue and the ‘Amenda’ Quartet – given with great gusto by the habitually alert Hagen Quartet.
The other novelty is a 1969 recording of the Piano Sonata, Op. 14 No. 1 in Beethoven’s own arrangement (it may even be the original version of the score). Here the once-ubiquitous Amadeus Quartet offer a sensitive performance in warm, ambient sound (which was achieved in the Ulfa-Ton Studio, Berlin). Turning to the Amadeus’s celebrated 1961 set of the complete Op. 18 Quartets (taped in the Beethovensaal) reveals a more overtly aggressive approach to the music and a closer, more immediate sound picture. Many readers will happily recall the salient features of these fine performances: powerful sforzandos, ample phrasal flexibility, taut development sections, occasional use of portamento, expressive vibrato (wider with Norbert Brainin than with his fellow musicians) and an immaculate sense of timing. The latter attribute is vividly exemplified at 1'51'' into the first movement of the Sixth Quartet where an accelerated upward flourish from the leader throws us, lemming-like, on to a full bar’s rest – a brilliant piece of writing, superbly realized. Another noteworthy passage is the finale of the previous quartet at 1'27'', where the players trace a wide dynamic curve from the end of the exposition to the beginning of the development. The C minor’s opening Allegro ma non tanto is dark and strongly accented, its development fiercely stated, whereas the carefree 6/8 opening of No. 5 (in A major) sways to a nicely buoyed rhythm.
The revised F major is given a wholly excellent performance and my only musical reservation – a very minor one, I have to say – concerns the opening of No. 3, which strikes me as just a trifle studied and overemphatic. The Emerson Quartet (on a seven-disc DG set, 7/97) employ a swifter, more fluid tempo and a more finely graded tone, and I feel their approach works rather better. They also programme the Third Quartet first (it was after all Beethoven’s first completed Quartet) and include the exposition repeat, which the Amadeus omit (as they do in all six quartets – although, paradoxically, the Hagen play the repeat in the first version of the First Quartet). Some readers, however, may find the Emerson too obviously ‘driven’ and for them, or indeed for any discerning collectors who do not necessarily crave digital sound, the Amadeus’s charm, vitality and unfailing sense of style may well win the day. I was certainly delighted to encounter them again.'