EMI Classics: Bartok String Quartets 1-6
Bartok's quartets are one of the great musical collision points between modernism and romanticism. How to handle the tension between their expressive gestures and constructivist designs is one of the abiding issues for performers and one reason why even the plethora of fine available recordings cannot remotely exhaust their riches. Getting the best of all worlds interpretatively is hardly a realistic aim. Even so, there are long stretches where the Belceas come as close to the ideal as any ensemble I have heard.
Try the first few minutes of Quartets Nos 2 and 3, and marvel at the gradation of forte and fortissimo, of piano and pianissimo, which helps to give entire movements far more convincing shape than less precisely observant ensembles achieve (even such as the Takacs, much vaunted in these pages). Try the outer movements of No 5 and marvel at the gear-changes negotiated smoothly, instantly and unanimously, yet never as ends in themselves, always accompanied by a sense of expressive-dramatic purpose. Try virtually every movement in fact, and revel, as the Belceas do, in the interplay of the lines, even in passages where others seem thankful just to come through unscathed.
Clearly immense thought has been given to tone quality. In the first movement of No 1, for instance, the Belceas point the periodic arrivals on consonant harmonies by withdrawing vibrato, and instantly the as yet not fully mature Bartok's straggly structure gains sharpness of profile. They apply the same ploy in the much tauter environment of the first movement of No 5, and with similarly revelatory results. At the other extreme, their sustained tonal intensity makes the most barbaric onrushes exhilarating rather than exhausting, neither too streamlined nor too effortful. When the score is bare of instructions, as in the first slow movement of No 5, they take it at its word and uncover a hypnotic, staring blankness. And when the invitation to humour is extended, as in the finale of the same quartet, they seize it with full-blooded, yet never self-serving, relish.
... In short,the Belceas are more than worthy rivals to the best on disc. And at least until the excitement of this first encounter subsides, my pulse-rate tells me that they are not just on a par but maybe even top of the heap.
David Fanning Gramophone May 2008
The Belcea Quartet bring to these works all their formidable commitment, power and technical accomplishment. These are masterpieces central to the string quartet's twentieth-century repertoire and these performances are fully worthy of their stature. The tonal, dynamic and expressive range here is enormous: the instruments not only sing and dance but rasp and clatter. The players sustain a level of technical perfection that no other set has so consistently reached and all these performances are unfailingly eloquent, with a clear, firmly directed interpretative vision - never passive and never narcissistic. Intonation is particularly fine: Bartok's densest harmonies speak with ringing purity. The Quartet's vibrato is thus at the service of the music - and some of the most expressive moments of the cycle are those where they employ none at all.
The early quartets receive performances just as fine as the later ones. The rich, full-bodied performance of the First is outstanding, not only often breathtakingly beautiful but carefully shaped (no mean feat: it can be a sprawling, problematic work). The folkloric interruptions which punctuate the first movement of the Second Quartet are exquisite; the Scherzo which follows is both exhilarating and technically superb - not only in its mad scurryings fore and aft (the pianissimo playing from 6'36" is skin-crawlingly fine) but in its more leisurely pizzicato moments. The exposed harmonies of the final Lento are performed with complete purity and no vibrato: entirely apt in the bleakest music Bartok would write for the medium until his last quartet.
The Sixth Quartet benefits particularly well from the Belcea Quartet's forthright brand of expression. The trio of the Marcia is a highlight, from the tormented lyricism of the cello's melody to the evocative pizzicato flappings of the viola. The Burletta as well has rarely sounded quite so satisfyingly horrible - in the best possible way. The closing pages of the final Mesto convey a singularly bleak message: again bleached of all vibrato.
EMI's recorded sound is clear and bright. The new recording can stand comparison with any of its distinguished predecessors: it is by some margin the most satisfying complete set I know. I recommend it in the strongest terms, to seasoned Bartokians and newcomers alike.
Carl Rosman, International Record Review, March 2008
For any quartet they represent a huge challenge, musically and technically. With their outstanding pedigree already firmly established, the Belcea Quartet have certainly earned the right to put their accounts of these key works onto disc...technically, these performances are impeccable, without a trace of insecurity... This is especially true of the First, unfolding with the same rapt care that the group would take over Beethoven's Op 131, which haunts so much of it, and the Third, in many ways the most elusive of the six, but here made to seem totally coherent and vividly plausible. The Second and the Fourth are, in their different ways, equally impressive. The lusher sound-world of the Second is particularly well caught..
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 25 January 2008
Still a young group, the Belcea Quartet play Bartók's six masterly string quartets with the passion, technical command and folk inflections that most musicians only dream of. Having a Romanian-born leader helps, but each player shades in a thousand colours and sings out the peasant rhythms, giving full vent to Bartók's dazzling emotional kaleidoscope. These are thrilling performances, bound for classic status.
Geoff Brown, The Times, January 18, 2008
'Bartok's six quartets form the fundament of the early-20th-century quartet repertoire, so it's not surprising that the Belcea Quartet, among the finest of their generation, should have joined the ranks of those who have ascended this particular Parnassus and tackled the challenge of recording the cycle. The result is a sequence of confident, knowing, unfailingly rewarding accounts. The Belceas' style remains fundamentally youthful, yet they also offer spacious, expressionistic playing of enormous power and warmth where necessary, capture the evocative night music and scuttling, eerie scherzos of the Fourth Quartet to perfection, and embrace the late-Beethovenian scope of the Sixth with telling wisdom.
Stephen Pettitt, The Sunday Times, January 20, 2008
Firmly established as a keystone of the chamber repertoire, less than a century after they were written, Bartok's string quartets cover an enormous range of musical territory. From the romantic First to the overwhelmingly lachrymose Sixth, via a labyrinth of technical mastery and music complexity, Bartok shows himself intent on updating it for his own times and beyond. Recognising their importance, the Belcea Quartet lavish their own considerable skills on these masterly works in a two-disc set that deserves to win awards.
Anthony Holden, The Observer, January 20, 2008
Since Beethoven, no composer has expressed so much about his own musical personality and about the quartet form as Bartók, whose six studies in the genre span his mature career. The Belceas uncover a romantic innocence in the first quartet, the spiky sweetness of the second, grit and sinew in the third, the wistful intensity of the sixth. What's so reassuring about all these interpretations is their avoidance of exaggerated expressive vehemence.
Andrew Clarke, Financial Times, 01 March 2008
