BaL 26.01.19 - Schumann: String Quartet No 3 in A, Op 41

[ardcarp]

Takács

(Worthy winners...even if I had to look up the spelling!)

[vinteuil]

Missed this and the website doesn’t yet list the recommended versions. I hate to be the one who asks “who won”, but...

... the Takács 2009 recording (but not their 1983 one).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002O2MC26

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[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My word, she's covering the ground!

= pacey, but not rushed; enthusiastic, but not gushing; critical without sneering; perceptive comments focussed on the work and its performers, not on the reviewer's erudition. Pretty darn perfect BaL.

[edashtav]

= pacey, but not rushed; enthusiastic, but not gushing; critical without sneering; perceptive comments focussed on the work and its performers, not on the reviewer's erudition. Pretty darn perfect BaL.

[my emboldening]

[mikealdren]

= pacey, but not rushed; enthusiastic, but not gushing; critical without sneering; perceptive comments focussed on the work and its performers, not on the reviewer's erudition. Pretty darn perfect BaL.

One slight cavil; for me, her voice was at too high a volume relative to the music. It's an old issue that I've not thought about too much recently.

[richardfinegold]

Very sorry to hear that, visnick - very best wishes.

Seconded

[richardfinegold]

I can’t supply much comparison listening, but I’ve listened twice to the Quartetto Italiano in the past week as I had recently obtained a complete box of their Phillips recordings but this thread led to the Schumann. I’ve really developed a liking for this Quartet (the other two haven’t quite seduced me yet) and my favorite movement is the finale, which has become this weeks ear worm. I don’t see many mentions of the QI here; any thoughts?

[jayne lee wilson]

Will listen to this, by all accounts impeccable, survey later, and seek out the prime rec.
(Still a bit distracted by Schubert D929, q.v...)

Any other 41/3s given late and honourable mention?

[vinteuil]

Any other 41/3s given late and honourable mention?

... the reviewer liked the Eroicas, and recommendations also went to the Zehetmair, Hagen, Leipzig, Vertavo, and Gerhard qtts. In fact she found good things to say about most of the quartets she discussed - including the Doric, Modigliani, Engegård, Elias, Gringolts, and Amadeus qtts.


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[Master Jacques]

No fault of Erica Jeal, who packed a lot in to her BaL and said much of interest; but I was surprised to find how very little most of the "leading contenders" appealed to my idea of how to play Schumann. This is a rare experience on BaL, where normally we feel spoilt for choice rather than the reverse.

I think this comes down to our late 21st century way of promoting angst and 'self-expression' above mere beauty of line, or the kind of radiant sublimity for which Schumann, Mendelssohn (or Spohr indeed) were prized in earlier times. Most of the contenders I heard (the winning Takacs, the Zehetmairs and Hagens - one of my favourite SQs, by the way) were all busy showing how deeply sensitive, intellectually restless and technically brilliant they were by playing on the nerve-end of the music, rather than letting Schumann speak for himself.

I may have lost attention, but I didn't hear mention of my own favourite interpretation of the three Schumann quartets, the Auryn Quartet (Tacet, 2002) - which was very highly praised in Daipason and other journals at the time, but being on this small foreign label has generally been overlooked here. A pity, for they major on beauty of tone, instrumental balance and an air of 'purposeful relaxation' - i.e. the qualities which make Schumann shine, without any need to "help" him by overemphasis of detail or extreme speeds.

I am perhaps in a minority of one on this one, but thought I'd like to voice my personal dissatisfaction at the overweening neurosis of this week's short list!

[ardcarp]

No fault of Erica Jeal, who packed a lot in to her BaL and said much of interest; but I was surprised to find how very little most of the "leading contenders" appealed to my idea of how to play Schumann. This is a rare experience on BaL, where normally we feel spoilt for choice rather than the reverse.

I think this comes down to our late 21st century way of promoting angst and 'self-expression' above mere beauty of line, or the kind of radiant sublimity for which Schumann, Mendelssohn (or Spohr indeed) were prized in earlier times. Most of the contenders I heard (the winning Takacs, the Zehetmairs and Hagens - one of my favourite SQs, by the way) were all busy showing how deeply sensitive, intellectually restless and technically brilliant they were by playing on the nerve-end of the music, rather than letting Schumann speak for himself.

I may have lost attention, but I didn't hear mention of my own favourite interpretation of the three Schumann quartets, the Auryn Quartet (Tacet, 2002) - which was very highly praised in Daipason and other journals at the time, but being on this small foreign label has generally been overlooked here. A pity, for they major on beauty of tone, instrumental balance and an air of 'purposeful relaxation' - i.e. the qualities which make Schumann shine, without any need to "help" him by overemphasis of detail or extreme speeds.

I am perhaps in a minority of one on this one, but thought I'd like to voice my personal dissatisfaction at the overweening neurosis of this week's short list!

In view of the above, what did you think of the Amadeus? Wonderful payers of their time, but fashions change.

[vinteuil]

I think this comes down to our late 21st century way of promoting angst and 'self-expression'

... I knew I was behind the times!

From your description the Auryn does indeed sound an interesting contrast - I shall have to investigate ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00005AV31

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[Master Jacques]

In view of the above, what did you think of the Amadeus? Wonderful payers of their time, but fashions change.

Fashions do indeed change: I personally find the Amadeus a little faded with the scent of rose-water in Schumann (though I still love their Haydn, in particular). The Auryns are more in the Italian Qt tradition of "purity of line", though playing in a much more contemporary style. And yes, vinteuil, if you are looking for a contrast to many of the performances we heard this morning, it's worth tracking down a reasonably-priced copy.

[Master Jacques]

... I knew I was behind the times!

... and I'm embarrassingly ahead of them. I'll let it stand, and see whether the sentence makes more sense in sixty years or so!!

[jayne lee wilson]

... the reviewer liked the Eroicas, and recommendations also went to the Zehetmair, Hagen, Leipzig, Vertavo, and Gerhard qtts. In fact she found good things to say about most of the quartets she discussed - including the Doric, Modigliani, Engegård, Elias, Gringolts, and Amadeus qtts.


.

Thanks, will respond after audition....

Master Jacques...
I don't think you could accuse the Eroicas or the Leipzigers of expressing too much, whether angst or neurosis. But there is indeed energy, passion and anguish in Schumann, and they both bring this out, clear-eyed and clear-headed; to these ears the balance is just right.

OTOH, the Fine Arts Quartet showed how relaxation, purposeful or not, really can go way too far (see above etc)....

In any case, you could see or hear Schumann as ahead of his time in the expression of intense psychic or emotional dislocation; the music is often overtly obsessive, repetitive, vividly mood-swinging. Very distinctively individual.
So I think it does speak to our late-decadent-cultural times, the self(-ie)-obsessed extremes we ourselves experience, more immediately than most. (I hope it still does so in the late 21st Century! Humankind may have even greater need of it then... )