Since the players' names are omitted from the new CD I think it important to point out that this is not the Fine Arts Quartet which made early stereo records for American Concert Disc—many of them were issued by Saga in the UK. Though that ensemble was very good it could not, I think, reach the heights of the new group.
When I compared EMI's Alban Berg Quartet and ASV's Lindsay Quartet in the Schubert work last March it was a question of balance sheets. To put the issues briefly, the Lindsays were intensely committed but a shade too vehement; and whereas the Alban Berg played brilliantly, they were a little dry in their approach and sometimes sounded rather effortful. Neither recording was ideal. When listening to the Fine Arts Quartet I was not so much aware of an interpretation but more that the playing seemed an inevitable and natural extension of the music itself. I'm not suggesting that their performance is peerless, or that this is the only right way to play the work, but I could only surrender to their music-making with total enjoyment. Each player has a fine technique and produces a rich, unforced quality of tone; and the quartet as a whole is a remarkably flexible and subtle instrument.
The turbulence and drama of the Schubert first movement is sharply and expressively drawn by the Fine Arts Quartet; but there are no harsh, ugly sounds as are occasionally produced by the two rival groups. Each variation in the second movement has its own distinct character; and the cellist plays his solo passage from bar 49 onwards with the most affecting eloquence. The remaining two movements are straightforwardly played but have much personality nevertheless.
In Mozart's Dissonance Quartet the Fine Arts are no less impressive. Their playing is warm and expressive within an elegant classical style: the Alben Berg Quartet on Teldec are by comparison just a little heavier and less subtle in their phrasing.
The Lodia recording s very good; it has vividness and immediacy, yet there is just enough space round the instruments to provide a proper studio acoustic.'