This disc is very good news for collectors who are reluctant to invest in boxed sets of Schoenberg's complete chamber music for strings, but who still expect full-price CDs to contain more than 50 minutes of music. Indeed, it is good news in any case, since the performance of the main work, the Op. 7 String Quartet, is among the best I've heard.
As some very distinguished ensembles have discovered, it is not easy to sustain the phenomenal contrapuntal continuity of Schoenberg's Op. 7 without lapsing into a style of playing that sounds too effusive in some places and too coolly calculated in others. Of the currently available versions, neither the Arditti nor the Manfred Quartet is entirely problem-free in such respects, and neither is in direct competition with the Leipzig team anyway - the Arditti offers the complete quartets, the Manfred Op. 7 in splendid isolation.
The Leipzig account has fine technicalconfidence as well as an ability to convey the music's many shifts of mood and texture in a natural and convincing manner. Not everything is perfect: a few details in the earlier stages are pointed to excess, and the approach to the principal climax of Schoenberg's intricate structure is dangerously hectic. But these are minor glitches in a well-integrated yet freely expressive reading, one to savour for its warmly romantic response to music that has intellect and emotion in ideal balance.
The recording is well integrated too, the texture well balanced if not especially spacious. With the bonus of a no-less striking account of the early D major Quartet, this is an impressive release. The recording of Op. 7 was made as long ago as 1992, let's hope that the remaining Schoenberg quartets (No. 3 is already available) might soon follow.'