Beethoven: Complete String Quartets and Große Fuge. Calidore String Quartet (Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violins; Jeremy Barry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello). Signum Classics. $79.99 (9 CDs).
It has taken a couple of years and listeners’ willingness to cope with a somewhat quixotic release schedule, but at last it is possible to obtain an integral set of the Beethoven string quartets with the Calidore String Quartet. And the wait has been more than worthwhile – although those who bought the individual releases of the late, middle and early quartets (produced in that order, hence “quixotic”) will not receive any bonuses from this nine-CD Signum Classics release and will therefore have no choice but to pass it along to someone who deserves a first-rate compilation of this music and does not yet have one. (All right, there is a choice: not to buy the complete set at all. But that seems churlish, especially since the price is a bargain compared with the $102 that the three separate releases cost when they initially appeared.)
This compilation, thankfully, presents the quartets in the usual early-middle-late sequence, making it easy to follow Beethoven’s progress from early to middle and late compositional periods – although, as often in Beethoven’s works, the numbering of specific pieces is not always straightforward: the six Op. 18 quartets, for example, were composed in the sequence 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 6. But whether one chooses to listen to them in that order or in the 1-through-6 sequence given here, what becomes clear quickly is how meticulously the Calidore String Quartet shapes the early quartets, and how much sensitivity they show to the strong influences of Mozart and Haydn within the music. Although simple (if scarcely simplistic) by comparison with the middle and late quartets, the six early ones are packed with Beethovenian stylistic elements that coexist with the approaches that he inherited from other composers of the time. Thus, although No. 1 in F contains themes closely resembling ones used in a Haydn quartet and Mozart violin sonata, the performers here rightly focus on the emotional centrality of the slow movement (Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato, a revision by Beethoven of the original Adagio molto). No. 2 in G, the most Haydnesque of these quartets, is played with appropriate grace and a slight tinge of formality – although here too the Adagio cantabile slow movement (which, as with No. 1, is Beethoven’s replacement of an earlier version) has extra weight and is actually the work’s longest component. The earliest quartet, No. 3 in D, is gentle and lyrical throughout, its thematic elements clear and the individual instruments’ roles nicely highlighted. No. 4 in C minor is essentially monothematic and thus puts extra pressure on performers to highlight resemblances among movements as well as to differentiate the forms in which the basic theme reappears. The C minor key invites intensity and urgency, but at this stage of Beethoven’s development those need to be held somewhat in check, and the Calidore players recognize this: they keep the quartet within the overall boundaries of Haydn and Mozart, albeit intensified, and avoid the temptation to overplay or over-emotionalize the music even though they allow its frequently stormy character to come through clearly – resulting, ultimately, in a genuinely thrilling prestissimo coda in the finale. No. 5 in A is the strongest Mozart tribute in Beethoven’s early quartets: it is modeled on Mozart’s quartet K. 464 in the same key. Especially well-handled here is the Andante cantabile, a theme and variations that stands in for the slow movement. No. 6 in B-flat, which has a considerable minor-key feeling despite its home key being in the major, contains not only an Adagio non troppo slow movement but also an Adagio introduction to the La Malinconia finale – a movement that Beethoven insisted be played “with the greatest delicacy.” The Calidore Quartet obliges with a performance that remains sensitive throughout to contrasts of mood: certainly melancholy elements are present, but there is also a quick and light dancelike section, and the performers explore all the material with care, fine intonation, and a sure sense of style.
The stylistic sensitivity is equal in the performers’ handling of the middle quartets (the three of Op. 59 plus Opp. 74 and 95); but here the Calidore Quartet brings an extra element to the music through its tempo choices. Nuance and detail are apparent throughout the readings, but are offered within a framework that, more often than not, makes a strong effort to adhere to Beethoven’s suggested speeds – which many other performers consider too fast to allow the music the breadth that it increasingly needs in middle-period and later Beethoven. The Calidore players manage to show that tempo concerns are generally overblown, and indeed that Beethoven knew exactly what he was looking for when choosing speed indications. The opening Allegro of Op. 59, No. 1, and the concluding Allegro molto of Op. 59, No. 3, to cite two examples, are played at or close to Beethoven’s metronome indications, and the movements not only work well but also show just how revolutionary the “Razumovsky” quartets were in their time. In fact, at this pace and with this precision, the quartets have an impact that makes them, despite their familiarity nowadays, sound new again.
This is not to say that these performances are invariably on the fast side. They are not, even if they are often quicker than those of other ensembles. The third-movement Allegretto of Op. 59, No. 2, for example, is paced quickly but not overly so, and here the players do especially well in emphasizing the music’s attractive syncopations. And the Andante con moto quasi allegretto second movement of Op. 59, No. 3, although it moves a bit too quickly for a sense of dreaminess, is effective thanks to finely honed dynamic contrasts and excellently accented ensemble passages.
The slower movements of the middle quartets are attentively handled throughout, if perhaps not always quite as convincingly as the speedier ones. The Adagio molto e mesto of Op. 59, No. 1, and Molto adagio of Op. 59, No. 2, are suitably tender but not always emotionally deep, although the emotive first-violin climax in No. 1 glows with greater intensity than the earlier part of the movement. Interestingly, the Adagio ma non troppo second movement of Op. 74 (“Harp”) seems a bit too slow to sustain well – but it does, thanks to highly lyrical playing that does not overstep into too-Romantic excess. Then, in the notoriously difficult-to-fathom Op. 95 (“Serioso”), the outer movements are outstanding, packed with intense drive while still possessing occasional flickers of soon-extinguished cantabile material: this is a performance that fully highlights the emotional as well as technical complexity of the work. The middle movements, however, are not quite as convincing: the peculiarly marked third movement, Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso, is actually a bit on the slow side, rendering its mixture of forms (a kind of march/dance) less apparent. Still, the technical skill of the Calidore String Quartet and its members’ attentiveness to Beethoven’s intentions and frequent mood changes mean that, as a whole, the handling of the middle quartets is as successful as is that of the earlier ones.
The late quartets shine, too. This is very difficult music both to understand and to play, but these performers have clearly thought about it with great care. Their doing so leads them to an unusual approach to the Op. 130 quartet (No. 13): instead of performing the piece as it is usually heard and appending the Grosse Fuge (Op. 133) afterwards, this recording uses the Grosse Fuge itself as the final movement of the quartet – as Beethoven originally intended – and appends the replacement finale that he created after being convinced that the Grosse Fuge was just too much for performers and audiences to handle as a quartet conclusion. Few performers present Op. 130 this way, and whether it “works” for listeners will be a matter of taste and opinion. On the one hand, it can certainly be argued that the Grosse Fuge is in fact more than the music can really handle. On the other hand, the performance of the Grosse Fuge here is a highlight of the entire Calidore cycle: it is played with tremendous precision, and its lines come across so clearly that its structural complexity seems both perfectly apt and absolutely necessary to make its musical points. But if this excellent rendition does not settle the no doubt impossible-to-settle argument over whether the Grosse Fuge works better on its own or as the capstone for Op. 130, it is worth noting that the Cavatina in Op. 130, as gorgeous a movement as Beethoven ever wrote, is in its own way as effective and emotionally enthralling here as is the Grosse Fuge.
In the rest of the late quartets, the most-engaging elements are generally in the variation-based slow movements, whose lyricism flows forth abundantly and always with admirable attentiveness from the performers that translates into deep involvement for listeners. A few of the faster movements, on the other hand, can be nitpicked, including one within Op. 130 itself: the fourth movement, just before the Cavatina, sounds a bit too heavy and perhaps even a little hesitant. Elsewhere, there is a touch too much speed, notably in the middle of the Scherzando vivace of Op. 127. And there is a very occasional veer toward the flaccid, if not quite the ponderous, as in the Alla marcia of Op. 132, which is a little mannered. But these are nitpicks and not criticisms of the performers’ always-well-thought-out approach to the late quartets and, indeed, to this entire cycle. The Calidore thoughtfulness, the sheer technical prowess of each performer, and the group’s remarkably meticulous ensemble playing make this quartet cycle a joy to hear and to revisit again and again. It is by any standards a top-notch set of readings of some of the most important string quartets ever written. And it is a set that, again and again, proves just how engaging, even enthralling, this music can be when presented by players whose understanding of and emotional connection with Beethoven’s quartets is as deep as their playing is skilled.
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