The new Accord set conveys a somewhat mixed impression. Everywhere the playing is of a very high standard, technically, and at their best the Artis Quartet can produce a beautiful quality of tone. In many of the slower movements, too, this group play with an attractively lyrical quality. But too often they simply brutalize the music in faster movements, and I wonder again why it is that quartet groups are tempted to drive so hard and fast through Mendelssohn's music in a way that they would never dream of in, say, Schubert or Mozart. Only in the performance of Op. 12 is this trait totally absent, and here is a pleasant, nicely poised reading which gives much pleasure. Elsewhere every performance is spoiled by one or more movements where the tempo is too hectic, where the players seem intent on showing their undoubted virtuosity, and where their tone becomes rough and ugly.
This fault is so general that I see no point in examining each quartet in detail: my copious notes taken on the voyage through the set make the same points time and time again. The recording seems to vary a little. I see that sessions in Zurich took place over four months. Sometimes the sound is vivid, yet comfortably rounded, but in some works a slightly hollow, metallic quality intrudes. The Artis play the Capriccio and Fugue from the posthumously cobbled 'Op. 81' separately from the Andante and Scherzo, which seems stylistically sensible, and all three discs are available separately. There is no one disc, however, which I can recommend without considerable reservation.
The Melos Quartet on DG play Op. 81 as an entity, but in almost every other respect their set is more satisfactory. It's true that there is sometimes a slightly harsh timbre in the recording, and not everywhere is the playing absolutely accurate, but the spirit of the music seems to me faithfully observed. In faster movements some tempos are quite lively, but never so brisk as those of the Artis Quartet. Their light, quicksilver playing is exhilarating and doesn't seem at all strenuous or overdriven. Even in the Quartet, Op. 12, where the Artis are perfectly satisfactory, the Melos find more poise, more personality and contrast in the music. And in the very late Op. 80, written by Mendelssohn in the shadow of his sister's death, the Melos convey the composer's feelings of anger and grief in much more compelling fashion.
I reviewed a third set by the Bartholdy Quartet last December (Acanta/Harmonia Mundi (CD) 43 075). This is temporarily unavailable, but even when it returns it will not quite challenge the supremacy of the Melos Quartet, since the performances, though pleasantly played and recorded, are in general less vivid and imaginative than those on the DG set.'