BaL 6.02.21 - Bartók: String Quartet No. 5.

[gurnemanz]

Digital sets are pretty good, just not as good as the earlier performances.

Keller is available new from Amazon.

But surprisingly for a widely recommended set (it's my only CD version) it seems to be not officially available. Not listed on Warner's site. Some suppliers must have leftover new stock. I couldn't see a download. As such does not make Alpie's list or presumably qualify for BaL.

[rauschwerk]

I wonder if it is this, by Matyas Seiber?
https://www.prestomusic.com/books/pr...tets-of-bartok

Actually it's by György Ligeti (a name that meant nothing to me when I acquired the score).

[Richard Barrett]

I posted in the earlier thread that I was very keen on the Hagens, which I still am, their sense of timbral variety seems to me more developed than most other quartets who have recorded this repertoire, although the Kellers are excellent too (and so is their Art of Fugue while I'm here).

[Pulcinella]

You can't go wrong with the Keller Quartet. And it's an inexpensive treasure!

Just ordered, while the price is still good: £7.61 (new) incl P+P.

[ahinton]

For those new to this piece, I recommend starting with the middle movement (the most accessible) and working outwards, since movements 2 & 4 are related, as are 1 & 5. The sonata form of the first movement is not too hard to follow, even though (according to Charles Rosen) it is atonal (the composer would probably have disagreed!). In this movement Bartok brings back the three main themes in reverse order and upside down. In his music of this period, understanding structure is at least as important as 'getting' the emotional content. There is an excellent structural guide in the Philharmonia/Universal study score (nla it would seem).

It is a rare thing indeed for me to disagree with Charles Rosen but I, too, would find it impossible to regard the first movement as "atonal"; the whole is shot through with tonal references...

[richardfinegold]

Alban Berg Quartet anyone? I’ve been thinking of buying their big box. Today is my birthday and I thought I might treat myself...
I don’t own any ABQ recordings, which is curious as I did see two of their concerts and enjoyed them as much as any Chamber Music event that I have ever attended.
Like many here my first and in my case for many years only recording was the 1963 Juilliard Set. After my lps were destroyed in a flood I purchased a Vox Box with the Hungarian Quartet from a resale shop that was unplayable. Eventually I bought the Emersons on CD and that has been it, except for adding a mono Juilliard set as part of a big box purchase. I am surprised that the Kodaly Qt. never did these; they are Hungarian and recorded darn near everything else for Naxos, although I can’t imagine their heavy vibrato in Bartok 5.

[Joseph K]

Alban Berg Quartet anyone? I’ve been thinking of buying their big box. Today is my birthday and I thought I might treat myself...
I don’t own any ABQ recordings, which is curious as I did see two of their concerts and enjoyed them as much as any Chamber Music event that I have ever attended.
Like many here my first and in my case for many years only recording was the 1963 Juilliard Set. After my lps were destroyed in a flood I purchased a Vox Box with the Hungarian Quartet from a resale shop that was unplayable. Eventually I bought the Emersons on CD and that has been it, except for adding a mono Juilliard set as part of a big box purchase. I am surprised that the Kodaly Qt. never did these; they are Hungarian and recorded darn near everything else for Naxos, although I can’t imagine their heavy vibrato in Bartok 5.

Happy birthday. I have the Alban Berg Quartett Bartok double-CD set, it's the only one I have but I like it.

[Pianoman]

I have the ABQ set bought many years ago. Great playing but was spoilt for me by too many glaring edits. Not too obvious on speakers but certainly on headphones. A few early digital sets suffer in this regard (Nortingtons LCP Beethoven for one)
In any case I find the Takacz and Belcea more convincing overall.

[richardfinegold]

I have the ABQ set bought many years ago. Great playing but was spoilt for me by too many glaring edits. Not too obvious on speakers but certainly on headphones. A few early digital sets suffer in this regard (Nortingtons LCP Beethoven for one)
In any case I find the Takacz and Belcea more convincing overall.

Headphones can do that...to many “warts and all”

[Darloboy]

It seems a little odd to me to choose just one of a set of six quartets for a BaL, but then, even without Andrew's contributions, 45 minutes would be nothing like long enough for a decent consideration of all available complete sets.
But given that the vast majority of the recordings listed will be part of a 2CD set of all six, it would be good to know that the others all passed muster.
As with others who have already posted, I was weaned on the three Fine Arts Quartet Saga LPs, in their distinctive bright red, green, and blue jackets. Later on, I bought the Juilliard (1963) LP box set. My first CD set was the Emersons (which won an award, as many versions seem to have done). I now have the Fine Arts and the 1963 Juilliard sets on CD too, so am not really in the market to expand further, though I'm looking forward to this BaL to hear some other versions.

Agreed. BaL does normally discuss all 6 quartets as a set. Last covered properly by Rob Cowan in April 02 when he made the Végh 1972 his first choice and the Takács his first digital choice. The Juilliard was his historic choice. He then covered it again in a BaL Revisited in September 05 when he made the Tokyo his new first choice (possibly the Végh had been deleted by that time). Prior to that, Stephen Johnson chose the Emersons in October 94. I can see from Genome that the quartets were also covered by BaL as a complete set by Arnold Whittall in October 81.

[Katzelmacher]

Is anyone else as irritated as I am that so few of these sets are in numerical order?

[Bryn]

Is anyone else as irritated as I am that so few of these sets are in numerical order?

As with the LHQ Haydn Op. 76 set, the timings of the individual quartets do not play ball with numerical order over 2 CDs.

[rauschwerk]

Is anyone else as irritated as I am that so few of these sets are in numerical order?

I'm not in the least irritated! What's the big deal? The last three quartets don't quite fit on one disc.

[Serial_Apologist]

All the Juilliards? The early mono, the '60s stereo and the (probably best forgotten about) digital sets?

Just having completed listening again to them all, it must be the 1960s set - there being no actual recording dates on the vinyls, though I got them from an HMV branch in the 1980s, if I remember correctly. I actually stood in the shop for over two hours, listening to the entire set over the shop's loudspeakers, before deciding they were good enough. I still largely think that, though there are one or two issues with over-hurried passages preventing the music from breathing, particularly in nos 3 and 4.

Those were the days when record stores sometimes employed staff with endless patience - and amazingly, nobody, no other customers, complained!

[kea]

My fondness for the Juilliard '63 set is generally something I regard as a personal idiosyncrasy, but even bearing that in mind, I do find them the best performers of this particular quartet, and by some distance. The Arcanto Quartett would be my second choice. I don't recall offhand any other recordings that stood out as something special, although the one I have listened to most often aside from those two appears to be the Hagen Quartet, so I'll hazard that it's probably also very good.