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The
Pro Arte Quartet
Recorded in 1934 and originally released as HMV DB2398-2404
Matrix Numbers: 2EA477-II, 2EA478-II, 2EA479-II, 2EA480-II, 2EA487-I,
2EA488-II, 2EA489-I, 2EA490-II, 2EA481-I, 2EA482-II, 2EA483-II,
2EA484-I, 2EA485-I, 2EA486-II,
(Duration
57'35 ")
Quartet
in F minor, Op.20 No.5
Quartet
in E flat major, Op.50 No.3
Quartet
in C major, Op. 76 No.3 ("Emperor")
Play
sample movement:
From
the magical cornucopia of Haydn quartets come three more quartets played
incomparably by the great Belgian pre-WWII ensemble. The quartet recordings
seem not to be a performance, but as the French say, "la chose en
soi": the thing in itself. The Pristine Audio remastering, perhaps
"recreation" is the true word, has succeeded into injecting
air and presence into what must have been, even for 1934, a very dull
and flattened recording, in effect taking matzohs and making a souffle.
Opus
20, #5 begins with an urgent, minorish theme and, after a conventional
development, goes into an intense, complex recapitulation. A minuet follows
with a major-key, lyrical trio. The andante is more decorative than deep.
A splendid fugue finishes off the work in the manner of the Op. 20 "Sun"
quartets.
Opus
50, #3 presents a very perky, energetic exposition leading to a contrapuntal
development and features a false recapitulation. The real recapitulation
is ingenious, filled with Haydnesque tricks. A walking, monothematic andante
leads to a vigorous, thrustful minuet. The finale is typical of Haydn
in that it is a spinning top, filled with clever touches and never faltering.
Opus
76, #3, the "Emperor" quartet, is so-named because the second
movement presents a set of variations on the Austrian national anthem.
The first movement is one of Haydn's greatest: mellow, complex, imaginative.The
Pro Arte play the repeated exposition; the development is highly imaginative
and ends in one of Haydn's great structural strokes: a version of the
opening them that sounds like one of his false recapitulations, but is
really not. After a pause, the true recapitulation follows and confounds
one by being even more brilliant than what has gone before. The famous
second movement reminds me of what Tschaikowsky (I believe) said about
variations: "never use a beautiful theme as the basis for a set of
variations. The variations only spoil the theme". So it is, I believe,
with this movement. The variations are rather decorative and rarely stray
far from the theme. Haydn's genius prevents vapidity, but only just. A
hearty minuet leads to a serious and agitated finale which begins with
three sharp chords. These chords reappear in many guises throughout the
finale.
Notes
and review: Bill Rosen
Technical
note about Volume Four: When restoring
these recordings from original 78rpm discs we always strive to use the
best-quality source material. In the case of this volume, we had two near-mint
sets of discs to work from. Thus should a problem arise with one set it
would be possible to turn to the other set for a second chance to find
the optimum transfer. In the case of the very first side of this set,
I noted poor surface quality, with a pronounced swish, and a tendency
to slight screeching in the strings. Naturally I immediately turned to
our second copy and transcribed this, only to find exactly the same problems
- even down to the swish reproducing identically on both discs.
In
both cases the difficulties eased off around halfway through the side,
and I can only put this down to problems in the mastering or pressing
stage of record manufacture. As such the sound quality, whilst hugely
improved, is of very slightly lesser quality for the first two to three
minutes of this recording than I had hoped to achieve. I'm happy however
to state that the 55 minutes of music which follow are delightful!
Find
out more:
Quartet
in C major, Op. 76 No.3 ("Emperor") 2nd mvt - Poco adagio; cantabile
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