The RIAS Amadeus Quartet Recordings Vol. IV: Modernism
Benjamin Britten, String Quartet No. 2 in C major
Michael Tippett, String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp major
Henry Purcell, Chacony in G minor
Henry Purcell, Fantasia No. 4
Henry Purcell, Fantasia No. 6
Mátyás Seiber, String Quartet No. 3 (Quartetto Lirico)
Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 4
Béla Bartók, String Quartet No. 6
Amadeus Quartet
Live recordings, Berlin 1950–1956
Audite 21.429 (2 CDs)
This two-CD set is a fascinating historical document with some
very fine string playing indeed. The legendary Amadeus Quartet , whose four
players played together for four decades from July 1947 to the death of violist
Peter Schidlof in August 1987, are best known as custodians of the eighteenth
and nineteenth century repertoire, providing touchstone performances of Haydn,
Mozart, Beethoven, and the other great classical and romantic quartet
composers. As this collection of recordings reveals, they also had a deep
empathy with the modernist repertoire.
The members of the Amadeus Quartet made a number of visits in
the early years of the quartet to Morley College, an adult education college in
London where Michael Tippett was the musical director until 1951. Mátyás Seiber
taught composition at Morley College. Both composers are represented in the
RIAS recordings, Tippett by his second quartet and Seiber by his third. The
Tippett quartet is an attractive, lyrical piece, somewhat removed from the more
avant garde directions of twentieth century music. Seiber’s third quartet is
loosely serial in construction, but looking more to Berg than to Webern or
Schoenberg. Neither quartet is frequently performed or recorded, but both are
well worth listening to.
The other quartets in the set are much more firmly
established in the repertoire. Britten’s second quartet is the only piece here
that the Amadeus Quartet recorded commercially (for Decca in 1963). Its most
striking feature is the magnificent third movement, which Britten entitled
‘Chacony’ (chaconne), in explicit reference and tribute to Henry Purcell, in
whose music he immersed himself in the late 1940’s. This interest in Purcell
was shared by Norbert Brainin (first violinist and founder of the Amadeus), who
worked with Michael Tippett on editing Purcell. Three of Purcell’s string works
are included here – the Chacony in G minor and the 4th and 6th
Fantasias. The Amadeus Quartet’s approach, lushly played with plenty of
vibrato, would not win favor with the historically informed performance
movement. But it provides a very interesting counterpoint to their fine
performance of the Britten quartet.
The Amadeus Quartet regularly programmed the last three
Bártók quartets (4, 5, and 6). The Fourth and Sixth are represented here,
recorded in 1955 and 1956 respectively. The Amadeus seem more at home in the
Sixth than the Fourth (where the playing in the first two movements is a little
uneven). The Mesto passages that open each movement are played with great depth
and the musicians bring out the grotesque and ironic elements in the middle
movements before the final movement’s melancholy close.
This set is the fourth in a six volume series with 25 CDs in
total. The recordings all come from studio performances recorded in the
post-war period by the RIAS radio station. RIAS stands for Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor
(Broadcasting in the American Sector). The engineers at Audite have
remastered the original studio tapes to produce first-rate sound quality. The
Tippett recording is slightly worse quality than the others, but still
perfectly acceptable. And, as is typical for Audite, the liner notes (by Rüdiger
Albrecht) are detailed and informative. This is an exceptionally well-produced
set, highly recommended for historical and musical value.
