Large claims have been made for Villa-Lobos's 17 string quartets. Grove states that they ''show the full extent of his mastery and originality''; the commentator for this disc classes them with the quartets of Bartok and Shostakovich. Since, unlike his more exotic chamber music, they are practically unknown in this country, curiosity is naturally aroused, and it can first be said that the young Bessler-Reis Quartet (ex-pupils of Gertler), who are recording the complete series, give them most eloquent performances. Their beauty of tone is striking (especially that of the viola), their intonation (save for the very last chord of Quartet No. 5) irreproachable, their unanimity and balance are practically faultless; and they are excellently recorded. My only criticism is that the dynamic range seems unduly limited and that too little is made of the sforzandos and cross-accents in No. 5's finale.
The intellectual rigour and depth of a Bartok or Shostakovich, or anything approaching sonata form or development of themes, are not to be looked for here: despite frequent recourse to quasi-fugatos, Villa-Lobos favours episodic and improvisatory-sounding structures which often border on the ramshackle (as AW remarked about the First Quartet in February 1984). The truth is that he worked at speed, was profligate with ideas (not bothering too much whether they were good or not) and was often apparently unwilling to ensure logical continuity within a movement or view it as an entity- when momentarily in doubt he would fall back on fidgety but intriguing native rhythms. Take for instance the first movement of his best-known quartet, No. 6 (which the Hungarian Quartet recorded for Columbia back in 1959, nla—and whose date of 1938, as found in all reference books, is contradicted by the score, which is signed ''Rio de Janeiro 1941''): though lively and attractive (introducing a rhythmic pattern also found in No. 1 of the Bachianas brasileiras), formally it is a jumble of disparate sections. The same could be said of the initial movement of No. 5, a work which draws heavily on Brazilian children's tunes and makes much use of swaying rhythms, harmonics and sul ponticello effects. No. 6, an overtly 'nationalistic' work, is nevertheless more interesting than the early No. 4, the last of a batch he wrote between 1915 and 1917, though the lulling start of its Andantino has charm. Whilst he is more immediately associated with extrovert, restlessly busy textures, a part of the real Villa-Lobos is to be found in such quiet movements: another is the rapt stillness which reigns in the opening and closing pages of the Andante of No. 6. His later quartets are said to lean more towards 'absolute' music, and it is to be hoped that future releases will give us the opportunity of hearing them: meanwhile the present disc can be confidently recommended to chamber-music lovers who can appreciate picturesqueness rather than profundity.'