There may be more glamorous string quartets on the current circuit, more tonally alluring ones too, but there are few that are more interpretatively perceptive than the Allegri or that bear witness to stronger musical relations between individual personnel. This particular programme – a nice balance of repertory, the sort that we see all too rarely these days – was recorded at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford and delivers an intimate, beautifully blended sound-frame, never highlighting one player at the expense of another and with a realistic sense of depth.
Musically, the most unusual item is an extended torso of the unfinished C minor String Quartet that, had Schubert completed it, would have featured the familiar Quartettsatz as its first movement. The Allegri offer an urgent, highly animated performance of the Quartettsatz, full of anguish yet not without moments of re-creative spontaneity (the leader’s limpid descent after the opening tutti crescendo, at around 0'13''); but the real find is Brian Newbould’s speculative completion of an Andante second movement that Schubert abandoned after 37 bars of full scoring (plus one bar for cello and four for first violin). The theme itself is tender and a little melancholy, while Newbould’s involving completion – with its telling modulations and expressive sequences – has an urgent emotional thrust. Again, the Allegri come up trumps with some highly sympathetic playing – both individually and as a combined voice – and their handling of Haydn’s Bird Quartet (one of a set that, in all probability, helped to inspire Mozart’s Haydn Quartets) is crowned by a warm-hearted Adagio.
Minor quibbles? Some vague articulation around the opening of the first movement (0'09'') and, again, 49 seconds into the Ravel; but otherwise nothing but praise. The Ravel has real shape to the phrasing (try the first movement’s second subject, at 1'43'') and plenty of urgent interplay later on, while the Scherzo’s haunting middle section (with its unmistakable premonitions of Valses nobles et sentimentales at 2'36'') and virtually the whole of the slow movement exhibit admirable powers of concentration. I suppose the ultimate test is whether or not the music’s originality strikes you afresh, and here it certainly does.
Being part of a mixed programme, direct comparisons hardly apply (most recommendable alternative versions of the Ravel are coupled with Debussy’s Quartet in G minor) but I should mention my own digital first choice by the Juilliard Quartet – a reading that combines agility, tonal richness and a formidable pooled intelligence with an impressive grasp of the work’s overall structure. However, those who fancy a well-recorded memento of a fine ensemble, musically substantial and with the innovative addition of Newbould’s Schubert completion, can invest with confidence.'