Benjamin Britten, The Complete String Quartets
Belcea Quartet
Unitel Classica/Euroarts
DVD 2072768
The trend toward Blu-Ray and DVD
issues has largely left both the string quartet and the post-Romantic twentieth
century behind. Most issues are recorded concerts of big nineteenth
century/early twentieth century symphonies and concertos, often simply recycled
TV performances. This very nice disc of Benjamin Britten’s three string
quartets goes some way towards redressing the balance. Hopefully it will
encourage others to make more imaginative use of Blu-Ray and DVD.
The three Britten quartets
(somehow it seems a little over the top to refer to a total of 80 minutes of
music as the complete Britten string quartets!) were recorded in June 2014 in
front of a tiny audience (a couple of dozen, or so) at the Studio Davout in
Paris – no stage or proper seating, just chairs loosely arranged. The format
works well, allowing the filmmaker, Frédéric Delesgues, to concentrate on the
music. Delesgues does a very good job of bringing out the silent communication
between the musicians, and focusing on a single instrument doesn’t seem quite
as crudely selective as it often does in orchestral videos, where filming can
seem to foreclose on the complexity of the musical texture.
Britten’s first two quartets were
written a few years apart in the 1940’s, with a 30 year gap to the third in
1975, written a few months before his death. Although plainly not carrying the
weight of the Bartok and Shostakovich cycles, they are very fine pieces,
showcasing Britten’s formal preoccupations and dexterity, as well as his
harmonic inventiveness and haunting melodic imagination.
The first quartet was composed on
Long Island in July 1941. It is an elegant piece with considerable humor (in
the scherzo, for example). But the emotional tone is set by the shimmering
introduction at the very top of the instruments’ registers. The center of
gravity of the quartet is in the Andante calmo third movement, which has strong
echoes of the introduction. The finale opens with more playful humor, but ends
with percussive drama, well communicated by the Belcea Quartet.
The second is probably the
best-known of the three, written in 1945 to commemorate the 250th
anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death. The three movement quartet is dominated
by the final Chacony (Britten uses the old English spelling of ‘chaconne’), but
the first two movements lay the musical ground most effectively. The chacony
itself is made up of 21 variations on a Purcell-like theme. The variations are
organized into four groups (focusing on harmonic, rhythmic, melodic, and formal
permutations respectively), each separated by a cadenza played by the cello,
viola, and first violin respectively. The musicians of the Belcea quartet rise
to the challenge.
In the five-movement third
quartet, written when his health was failing, Britten displays more of the
percussive approach to rhythm that we see in the first quartet, particularly in
the second (Ostinato) and fourth (Burlesque) movements. The first movement,
curiously entitled ‘Duets’, does indeed open with a duet, but then morphs into
“duets for four instruments”. The middle movement is a highly expressive, lightly
accompanied solo for the first violin. The final Recitiative and Passacaglia is
its match in expressiveness, while looking back formally to Purcell. This
quartet deserves to be much better known.
The Belcea Quartet are very
comfortable with Britten’s musical idiom, delivering performances of great
insight and complete technical mastery. This is their second recording of the
Britten Quartets. The first, for EMI in 2005, won the Midem Cannes award, and
was well received. Hopefully these filmed performances will be too. The sound
and video quality are good enough that I thought I was watching a Blu-Ray. Highly
recommended.
