This is a marvellous disc—by no means the only marvellous one the Arditti Quartet have produced in recent years, but especially welcome because it vindicates all those who have steadfastly believed in Webern's music through the ups and downs of its post-war reputation. The one sobering thought is that this group of London-based musicians, so invaluable to the British musical scene, should now be recording entirely for companies based on the Continent.
The three early works, composed shortly after the commencement of Webern's studies with Schoenberg, are admittedly little more than documents of a talented apprenticeship. In style they commute somewhat uneasily between the Master's First String Quartet and his Verklarte Nacht, and they tend to lapse into banality whenever they attempt long phrases. But only three years later, in the Expressionist annus mirabilis of 1909, the Op. 5 Movements are already fully mature. From the brainstorm of No. 1, through the frozen meditation of No. 2, the nightmare march of No. 3, and the rarefied Alpine air of No. 4, to the suppressed elegy of No. 5, the Arditti have the full measure of Webern's technical and expressive demands.
If I say that Op. 5 is my single favourite Webern work, that is not to deny the fascination of the Op. 9 Bagatelles or the mastery of Op. 28 (which I have never heard sound so humane, even good-humoured in its gemachlich middle movement). In the String Trio and the posthumously published Movement for the same forces I am still waiting for full comprehension to dawn; but in the meantime it is a pleasure to be able to revel in such superb playing. These last two works and the 1906 Rondo are not to be found on the Quartetto Italiano's Philips disc; and in any case the precision of the Arditti's musicianship and the clarity of the Disques Montaigne recording quality are to be preferred. By the same tokens the Arditti are streets ahead of the LaSalle Quartet in their four-disc DG set of works by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern ((CD) 419 994-2GCM4, 4/88).'