Welcoming the return of the Tokyo's Haydn Op. 50 Quartets on DG (see page 1818) I noted a freshness which I'd missed in their later Op. 76 on CBS. I'm glad to say that something of the old freshness has returned here, but along with it comes what one reviewer of the CBS set called ''a tendency to put lipstick on the music''. There is some wonderful playing here. The precision, elegance and tonal beauty are often matched by expressive insight especially in the last two movements—I particularly like the dark/light shading in the finale. But the decision to turn the first movement into a kind of battle between two tempos has, not so much the ring more the loud clang—of artificiality. The gear change at the pianissimo tremolando passage just after the opening isn't as abrupt as in some readings, but when the cello enters it almost grinds to a halt. And I don't like leader Peter Oundjian's affettissimo pointing here, or in the decorated return of this passage just before the development—lipstick and blusher this time.
I find the Tokyo's occasional indulgences easier to forgive than those of Gidon Kremer and his team on CBS—a performance that may have worked in the concert-hall (it was recorded live) but which sounds terribly over-pointed on record. This new version has some lovely things—I mentioned the dramatic shading of the finale, and the contrast between scherzo and trio is similarly effective, in the end though I don't think it stands up to the Busch/EMI or Lindsay/ASV accounts. The Tokyo may be a more refined, precise ensemble (Peter Oundjian has nothing of Peter Cropper's tendency to fly out of tune when excited) and the recording is warmer and clearer than even the near-contemporary ASV, but compared with either the Busch or Lindsay readings the Tokyo's Andante can sound suave or in the fortissimo outbursts, fussily articulated. And 45 minutes is, of course, a very short CD—at least the Lindsay give us the first movement repeat. No, unless you really must have squeaky-clean accuracy, go for the intellectually and expressively powerful Lindsay or the justifiably revered Busch (vintage 1940) vividly transferred to Compact Disc.'