Choosing between the Alban Berg and Orlando discs depends on whether it's the Dvorak or the Smetana that interests you more. The Alban Berg are on superb form in both works, and yet it's in the Dvorak that they impress most. While they're not as generous as the Orlando, they maintain the tension and the focus right through. Dvorak's copious markings are treated respectfully but by no means slavishly, and each movement soars. Few performances have communicated such pleasure in motion in the first movement as this, while the Lento, refined and serious as it is, has the lilt of true songfulness—the kind of thing many aspire to, but few seem able to achieve. The Smetana in contrast sounds a little po-faced in the Polka—the motions are gone through without obvious enjoyment—while the slow movement takes a while to warm up; still, the symphonic sweep is impressive, especially so in the more mobile and dramatic outer movements.
The Orlando try a little too hard for my liking in the Dvorak, and devices like the traditional molto affettuoso gear change for the first movement second subject strike me as well past their sell-by-date—and why no exposition repeat? The Smetana, however, is compelling and utterly fresh. The Polka dances, the Largo theme is truly touching (for this I can easily put up with the cello swoops in the opening bars) and the finale's crisis point comes as quite a shock—the violin's high E really shrieks—after which the coda's gradual fragmentation is grimly convincing. A slight abrasiveness in the recorded sound is easily tamed.
For all my reservations about the Orlando's American, I still prefer it to the ferocious Cleveland version—hard-driven in its outer movements and far from friendly in the Lento and Scherzo, despite instances such as the soulful cello at the end of the slow movement. Fortunately the A flat Quartet is less pressurized and much of it emerges very well, especially the homely, songful Lento, which acquires a telling expressive edge here. There's too much edge however in the second movement trio, and too little sense of rhythmic freedom in the five-against-four-against-three patterns—the phrases refuse to open out. The best version by far of this very likeable work is still the Prague Quartet on DG, and that comes only (alas!) as part of the complete, nine-CD set.'