Two new sets, the New Budapest Quartet on Hyperion and the Prazak on Nuova Era, are underway to challenge the various eminent Beethoven cycles from the Vegh (Auvidis Valois/Koch International), Alban Berg (EMI), Talich (Calliope/Harmonia Mundi) and Lindsay (ASV) Quartets—and of course the Quartetto Italiano (Philips). The Prazak hail from Prague though the insert notes give no information about them and, unlike the New Budapest, they begin at the end of their cycle: the first two volumes are both of late quartets. For many readers, however, these full-price CDs will be uncompetitive in spite of the excellence of the recording. Today one is used to having an extra quartet, even with Op. 132, while most rival versions offer Op. 130 with both the Grosse Fuge and Beethoven's alternative finale. Here we get only the Grosse Fuge. Mind you, this in itself would not be a consideration if either performance offered insights of exceptional quality.
The Quartet, Op. 130 starts very well and indeed continues well for much of the time. The third movement is a bit too jaunty, perhaps, and I can't say that I care for the rather exaggerated bulges in the Alla danza tedesca. The tempo of the Cavatina is well judged, but the leader's throb at bars 13-14 (track 5, 1'25'') and elsewhere in the movement strike me as a little too soulful. On the whole, however, their playing is both highly accomplished and intelligent; the Grosse Fuge is gutsy and full of vigour. All the same, with such commanding versions as those I have mentioned on my shelves, I doubt whether I would be reaching for this account of Op. 130 very often. Nor, for that matter, would I be reaching for the Op. 132 very much either. The first movement promises well but, again, I found the hairpins in the Allegro ma non tanto just a little too extreme, and the Heiliger Dankgesang is a little lacking in awe and mystery. Comparison with the Vegh or the Talich is not to the newcomer's advantage.
Mention of the Vegh reminds me that a collector from Massachusetts, Michael Marcus, recently wrote to say how disturbing he found Sandor Vegh's intakes of breath. As he put it, what started as a peripheral problem now assumes major proportions; he anticipates the sniffs so acutely that he finds the Vegh's cycle difficult if not impossible to live with. (Once you notice a problem of this kind it becomes magnified, like the tongue examining a small cavity in a tooth!) Of course levels of tolerance vary and I have to confess that I don't find these irritations unduly obtrusive. However, I sympathize since I react to Glenn Gould's sing-a-long in an analogous fashion and find many of his discs difficult to live with! Michael Marcus agrees with me that the Vegh's performances have special insights: ''on the one hand I'm grateful for having this [Beethoven] set; on the other I can't enjoy those I bought previously, the best being the enemy of the good''. Having known the Vegh he would not, I think, be very happy with either of the Prazak discs, though they are far from a negligible ensemble technically and artistically, and are very well recorded.
What of the New Budapest Quartet's disc of the Rasumovsky Nos 2 and 3? I must say that their cycle is steadily getting better—I liked their Op. 59 No. 1 (5/91) even if its slow movement struck me as less searching that that of the Lindsay (ASV, 4/87). They make a more consistently refined sound than the Prazak, who suffer from just the faintest touch of tonal narcissism. Their intonation is generally spot-on (as indeed is that of the Prazak), their tonal blend is equally fine and the leader produces a sweet, clean sound. They also have a good feeling for the architecture and shape of a movement: their account of the Adagio of the E minor is a model of its kind, with phrasing most musically judged and an effortless sense of forward movement—and, for that matter, the same goes for its companions in the series. Nor would I quarrel with any choice of tempo here: my only slight reservation concerns the C major Quartet: they make a sudden spurt forward when the trio section of the Grazioso movement starts. There is a good sense of innigkeit (inwardness of feeling) in the introduction to the first movement and the middle one is excellent.
In both quartets the New Budapest can be recommended alongside the Lindsay, which as regular readers of these columns will know, is no mean praise. They are very well recorded in clean, bright (but not overlit) sound.'