Included here are a pleasant performance and a good one, both well recorded. The 'pleasant' reading is the Schubert: beautifully toned, ingratiatingly phrased, calmly purposeful and never less than respectful to the letter of the score—I certainly wouldn't call it superficial, yet there are so many points at which I wish they would give just a little more. Listen to the way the Hagen's cellist, Clemens Hagen, points the dotted figures just after the Minuet's central climax (bars 37-40), or the Lindsay's subtly expressive shading of the minor and major versions of the first movement theme, and you see how much this music can yield. The Alban Berg (EMI) may seem somewhat austere after the Lindsay (ASV) and Hagen (DG), but there's a concentration and tension beside which the Vanbrugh version sounds understated.
In the Haydn, however, the Vanbrugh dig rather deeper. This time it's not a case of understatement, but of restraint. While the Vanbrugh lack something of the elegant quickness of the Takacs (Decca) or the irresistable directness of the Lindsay, there's plenty of controlled vitality, and the great F sharp major Largo skilfully combines feeling with flow—fine long and short phrasing and intensity without recourse to excessive rubato or vibrato. There are no surprises, it's true, but one does come away with an enhanced appreciation of Haydn's mastery in this work—in itself a recommendation at a time when the father of the string quartet is still under-appreciated.'