C minor was scarcely less dramatic a key for Brahms than Beethoven. And how much better its challenges suit the Emerson Quartet here than Schumann's A major geniality. When comparing the two newest versions of Brahms's Op. 51 No. 1 last September from the Danish and Takacs Quartets, I quickly gave my vote to the young Hungarians. But choice between that team and the Emerson is a bit harder, not least in terms of sound. The Hungarians, resonantly recorded by Decca in what the booklet calls ''Church Studios, London'', enjoy a warmer tonal bloom—particularly welcome up at the top. On the other hand the slightly dryer Americans (recorded way back in 1984 in New York's American Academy of Arts and Letters) at times score with their clarity—especially in the lower-voiced Allegretto and the often densely scored finale. As for the playing itself, I thought the Emerson very well able to match Hungarian intensity and drive in the work's two flanking movements—and indeed they (rightly or wrongly) surpass it in their two headlong codas. While perhaps lacking the Takacs's finely sustained continuity of line in the opening movement's moments of assuaging lyricism, the Emersons are just as sensitive as their rivals in the intimacy of the Romanze, and I prefer their slightly easier flow in the Allegretto—also their little extra rhythmic tingle in its un poco piu animato trio.
In Schumann's A major Quartet, on the other hand, their point-making often sounds forced: this music needs an altogether gentler, subtler, more graciously 'old-world' touch. After a persuasive enough start, trouble begins in the first movement's development section, where their build-up to the climax grows almost aggressively vehement (and incidentally no accelerando is requested here by the composer himself). The second movement's two more vigorous variations are too insistently accented and projected, and the lively finale sounds overdriven, at times just a trifle brash. In their desire to squeeze out the last drop they even overstress one or two figures of accompaniment in the Adagio molto, though this is the movement where they most seem to recognize discretion as the better part of valour. In sum, perhaps Schumann in poster-paint. For a more tenderly sympathetic picture I'd suggest staying at home with the Albernis on CRD.'