Schubert String Quartets
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Franz Schubert
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 2/1992
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 754345-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| String Quartet No. 10 |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Britten Qt Franz Schubert, Composer |
| String Quartet No. 14, 'Death and the Maiden' |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Britten Qt Franz Schubert, Composer |
Composer or Director: Franz Schubert
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 2/1992
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: EL754345-4
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| String Quartet No. 10 |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Britten Qt Franz Schubert, Composer |
| String Quartet No. 14, 'Death and the Maiden' |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Britten Qt Franz Schubert, Composer |
Author: Stephen Johnson
Alarm bells have been clanging vigorously. Leather-clad string quartets astride motorbikes; Schubert's Death and the Maiden marketed under a ''lurid 1950s cartoon sleeve'' showing a Jayne Mansfield-like Maiden on the verge of some seriously heavy petting with an old favourite from the Hammer studios—what kind of signal does this send to the potential record-buyer, asked a reader in last December's Gramophone? Can the music really ''live up (or down) to the promise of superficial thrills and cinematic immediacy''?
Well of course it can't, and it's hard to imagine the kind of person that would be persuaded by this sort of image-distortion. Most people who know anything about music will have realized that the great works of the Austro-German string quartet repertoire require the listener to go some way to meet them—active, not passive listening. If the intention is to lure those who like a little background Nige to jolly along the party chat then it's bound to fail, and that is—or should be—the end of it.
So much for packaging. What matters is how the Britten Quartet's Death and the Maiden sounds. Technically it's difficult to imagine more confident, agile playing—even such notoriously sticky moments as the darting high-low cello figures at the climax of the Variations are negotiated with impressive sureness—and the ensemble is alert and finely tuned. Fortes and sforzandos are incisive throughout, while in quieter, more yielding moments rubato is economically used and always restrained—even the ritardando at the end of the first movement is far from the traditional winding-down. The Andante is unambiguously con moto without feeling hurried, and the Trio emerges from the Scherzo at a pulse which is slightly more relaxed—in both senses of the word.
That more or less accounts for what you might call the 'geography' of the performance. But when it comes to character—this is where it gets difficult. I came away from this disc with my admiration for Schubert's writing enhanced, but with disturbingly little feeling of having been involved in a musical drama. There is a kind of steely beauty about the first movement's second subject, the trio theme and the major-key variation of the Andante, but little sensual warmth or pathos—this is hardly the stuff of which memorable seduction scenes are made. And in famous 'horror' passages like the pianissimo that sets the first movement coda on its hectic course there's barely a frisson. Playing in the delightful early E flat Quartet does warm up a little, but I still wouldn't call it affectionate.
Part of the problem is undoubtably in the recording, which is analytically clear but strangely atmosphere-less, and yet that seems to match, rather than thwart the expressive manner. What bothers me most is how unlike a real performance this feels. Going back to the Quartetto Italiano (Philips) or still more the Busch (EMI) I feel like blessing them for their blemishes. In comparison with them, this sounds like a well-planned, highly efficient, run-through.'
Well of course it can't, and it's hard to imagine the kind of person that would be persuaded by this sort of image-distortion. Most people who know anything about music will have realized that the great works of the Austro-German string quartet repertoire require the listener to go some way to meet them—active, not passive listening. If the intention is to lure those who like a little background Nige to jolly along the party chat then it's bound to fail, and that is—or should be—the end of it.
So much for packaging. What matters is how the Britten Quartet's Death and the Maiden sounds. Technically it's difficult to imagine more confident, agile playing—even such notoriously sticky moments as the darting high-low cello figures at the climax of the Variations are negotiated with impressive sureness—and the ensemble is alert and finely tuned. Fortes and sforzandos are incisive throughout, while in quieter, more yielding moments rubato is economically used and always restrained—even the ritardando at the end of the first movement is far from the traditional winding-down. The Andante is unambiguously con moto without feeling hurried, and the Trio emerges from the Scherzo at a pulse which is slightly more relaxed—in both senses of the word.
That more or less accounts for what you might call the 'geography' of the performance. But when it comes to character—this is where it gets difficult. I came away from this disc with my admiration for Schubert's writing enhanced, but with disturbingly little feeling of having been involved in a musical drama. There is a kind of steely beauty about the first movement's second subject, the trio theme and the major-key variation of the Andante, but little sensual warmth or pathos—this is hardly the stuff of which memorable seduction scenes are made. And in famous 'horror' passages like the pianissimo that sets the first movement coda on its hectic course there's barely a frisson. Playing in the delightful early E flat Quartet does warm up a little, but I still wouldn't call it affectionate.
Part of the problem is undoubtably in the recording, which is analytically clear but strangely atmosphere-less, and yet that seems to match, rather than thwart the expressive manner. What bothers me most is how unlike a real performance this feels. Going back to the Quartetto Italiano (Philips) or still more the Busch (EMI) I feel like blessing them for their blemishes. In comparison with them, this sounds like a well-planned, highly efficient, run-through.'
Schubert String Quartets
Schubert String Quartets
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