BaL 15.04.23 - Janácek: String Quartet No 1, “Kreutzer Sonata”

[richardfinegold]

I must have bought the Haas as a result of a recommendation (probably Gramophone) but seem to remember finding it a bit too aggressive in music I think should be more tenderly played.
Mind you there's a lot of emotion behind/within the music.
Time to take it off the shelf and listen again, and try to find some of the others already recommended here to stream.

The Janacek Qt. record imprinted me as to how it should go. You are right in that it sounds fierce, probably why the other recordings never quite gained my favor. My hiatus from the piece may be a chance to reboot how I think it should go, so I’ll start with other recordings

[Pulcinella]

The Janacek Qt. record imprinted me as to how it should go. You are right in that it sounds fierce, probably why the other recordings never quite gained my favor. My hiatus from the piece may be a chance to reboot how I think it should go, so I’ll start with other recordings

This really might be a case of first version heard syndrome.
I wish we had Interpretations on record instead (though that's what we get here, of course).

Listened to the Janacek Quartet yesterday to remind me of that early encounter.
Haven't revisited the Gabrielis yet, but so far today it's been
Quartetto Energie Nove
Hagen Quartett
Quatuor Diotima

All vastly different, so I need to dig the score out too, and see quite how that can be.

[groovydavidii]

Be mindful, the not mentioned Lindsay String Quartet, ASV Bohemians Series, also offer a worthy “Kreutzer Sonata.”

[richardfinegold]

It is difficult, at least for me, to consider the KS In isolation, since it is so frequently coupled with the Second Quartet. I listened to the Mandelrings on a SACD from Audite. I think the selling point of this disc is that it has two versions of Intimate Letters, one featuring Viola D’amore. I am only familiar with that instrument in Vivaldi Concertos. If I didn’t know that it had been used I would have thought it was a slightly higher sounding and slightly less resonant viola. The different versions also have different tempos, particularly in the polka-esque rhythms, and it’s those interpretive choices that stood out to me more than the changes in instruments.
Back to the KS, the Mandelrings are febrile with restraint and lyrical by turns as fits the novella that inspired the work, with the dam bursting at the end as the violence and passion reaches it’s apotheosis. The conclusion is that more shattering because of the passion barely held in check that precedes.
The recording, particularly the DSD layer, is superb. The soundstage is huge, with instruments seeming to emerge at times from several outside my speakers.
I won’t lay claim that this is the greatest recording of the Janacek Quartets ever, but this is a special disc that I must have played once while distracted and then filed away, and will now return to often.
My bias is that Czech musicians reign supreme in the Janacek Quartets, and tonight hopefully will get to one of those ensembles tonight

[RichardB]

I listened to the Mandelrings today. It's very well recorded to be sure. I find on the other hand that their vibrato is a bit much in the louder passages. I like the idea of doing both versions of the 2nd quartet but the Diotimas do this too. Now listening to the Janáčeks for the first time. The first movement is surprisingly slow compared to all the others I've heard, and the balance between voices in the second movement is often quite different from the other recordings I've heard, but the way they do everything seems to have a "rightness" about it which probably plays into the idea that, as you say, "Czech musicians reign supreme". Personally I tend to want to question assumptions of that kind, but in these pieces there seems to be something to them!

[Barbirollians]

I listened to the Mandelrings today. It's very well recorded to be sure. I find on the other hand that their vibrato is a bit much in the louder passages. I like the idea of doing both versions of the 2nd quartet but the Diotimas do this too. Now listening to the Janáčeks for the first time. The first movement is surprisingly slow compared to all the others I've heard, and the balance between voices in the second movement is often quite different from the other recordings I've heard, but the way they do everything seems to have a "rightness" about it which probably plays into the idea that, as you say, "Czech musicians reign supreme". Personally I tend to want to question assumptions of that kind, but in these pieces there seems to be something to them!

I came rather late to these works and bought the Pavel Haas Quartet recordings - they seem pretty marvellous to me.

[richardfinegold]

I listened to the Mandelrings today. It's very well recorded to be sure. I find on the other hand that their vibrato is a bit much in the louder passages. I like the idea of doing both versions of the 2nd quartet but the Diotimas do this too. Now listening to the Janáčeks for the first time. The first movement is surprisingly slow compared to all the others I've heard, and the balance between voices in the second movement is often quite different from the other recordings I've heard, but the way they do everything seems to have a "rightness" about it which probably plays into the idea that, as you say, "Czech musicians reign supreme". Personally I tend to want to question assumptions of that kind, but in these pieces there seems to be something to them!

I am of the opinion that in this hyper emotional, perhaps close to being overwrought music, that it isn’t possible to overdo the vibrato, but others may not agree.
I am saving the Janaceks for last in my little survey. Today it was the Smetenas on Denon. This is an early digital recording and sounds it, with a glassy, glaring treble , and there is a lot of treble in these works. The performance, on the other hand, seems to have a “rightness” about it. It is at a lower temperature than the Mandelrings, and the phrasing seems more idiomatic, feeding into my bias that Czech musicians have an advantage here. I think the Pavel Haas will blow the doors off them in virtuosity, but this not lacking in passion.

[Bryn]

On commercial CDs here are, in alphabetical order of performers' names:

Belcea Qt
Britten Qt
Quatuor Diotima
Gabrielli Qt
Janacek Qt
New Helsinki Qt
Mandelring Qt
Pavel Haas Qt
Talich Qt

The Britten Qt and New Helsinki Qt I find the least engaging. The others all offer something or other special, I feel.

There are several others saved from broadcasts, and I intend to stream the Hagen Qt and Smetana Qt, later today.

[Ah, just found a CD-R of an 8th July 1998 concert broadcast from the Pitville Pump Room of the Lindsays playing Kurtag's Pfficium Brve, Op. 8; Janachel's Kreutzer Sonata Quartet; and Beethoven's Op. 59/2. It seems to have survived the ravages of time.]

[Pulcinella]

I have just remembered that the June 2022 BBC MM CD (Vol 30, No 9) features a performance by the Pavel Haas Quartet, recorded at the Bath International Festival on 18 June 2009.
I need to compare that performance with their earlier (recorded June/July 2007) commercially released Supraphon one.

[Bryn]

I have just remembered that the June 2022 BBC MM CD (Vol 30, No 9) features a performance by the Pavel Haas Quartet, recorded live (sic) at LSO St Luke's, London, 8 November 2011.

Good point. That's another I have, tucked away somewhere.

Wow! What a well-filled disc: 83'35". The Janacek and the Dvorak Op. 106 date from the June 2009 Bath International Festival, the Dvorak 'American' from November 2011 (LSO St Luke's).

[Pulcinella]

Good point. That's another I have, tucked away somewhere.

Wow! What a well-filled disc: 83'35". The Janacek and the Dvorak Op. 106 date from the June 2009 Bath International Festival, the Dvorak 'American' from November 2011 (LSO St Luke's).

Yes: it comes with a warning that it might not play on all players. I misread the tracks when I said it was from St Luke's in 2011! I'll correct my post.

[Bryn]

Yes: it comes with a warning that it might not play on all players. I misread the tracks when I said it was from St Lukes in 2011! I'll correct my post.

For well over a decade, I have occasionally used "overburn" CD-Rs to cram works of up to 99 minutes on a single disc. I think Horenstein's well-known recording of Mahler's 3rd may have been the first I ripped from my commercial CDs and burned to such an overburn CD-R for convenience of playback without a disc change. I presume the same approach to getting more data onto a disc can be used with stamped CDs, though they would not qualify for "Red Book" status. I did have an early CD player that couldn't even handle anything over about 75 minutes but no player made this century that I have encountered has ever had a problem with overburn discs of up to around 95 minutes. Another trick was to use "Audio DVD Creator" to burn recordings of much longer duration and/or higher resolution to a single disc. These days, of course, it's more convenient to use portable hard discs, USB memory sticks, etc.

Oh, the Dvorak and Janacek string quartet cover disc is playing here now.

[Master Jacques]

The bad news: with so many excellent versions of Janacek's 1st String Quartet to choose from, covering such an unusually wide variety of interpretations, choosing a short list for BaL is bound to be contentious.

The good news: with Erik Levi at the helm, we have a good broadcaster of huge intelligence, articulacy and discriminating judgement.

My own choice: it would have to be one of the Czech versions, not one of the streamlined 'international' readings which forget that this music was written to sound on the edge - both emotionally, and at the physical limits of what's playable. Aside from the Smetana Quartet and Janacek Quartet (unavoidable classics), from slightly more modern versions I always greatly enjoy revisiting the Škampa Quartet (2002, Supraphon) who can be a mite fierce for some tastes. Not for me: I love their willingness to conjure up eerie sounds, from strange places on their strings. There is nothing sentimental about this performance.

[RichardB]

it would have to be one of the Czech versions, not one of the streamlined 'international' readings which forget that this music was written to sound on the edge - both emotionally, and at the physical limits of what's playable.

I take it you haven't heard the Hagen Quartett version then - that's the first on I would look to for a performance that sounds sometimes almost unbearably on edge. I will listen to the Škampa recording today, you make it sound highly attractive.

[richardfinegold]

The bad news: with so many excellent versions of Janacek's 1st String Quartet to choose from, covering such an unusually wide variety of interpretations, choosing a short list for BaL is bound to be contentious.

The good news: with Erik Levi at the helm, we have a good broadcaster of huge intelligence, articulacy and discriminating judgement.

My own choice: it would have to be one of the Czech versions, not one of the streamlined 'international' readings which forget that this music was written to sound on the edge - both emotionally, and at the physical limits of what's playable. Aside from the Smetana Quartet and Janacek Quartet (unavoidable classics), from slightly more modern versions I always greatly enjoy revisiting the Škampa Quartet (2002, Supraphon) who can be a mite fierce for some tastes. Not for me: I love their willingness to conjure up eerie sounds, from strange places on their strings. There is nothing sentimental about this performance.

I listened to Pavel Haas Quartet last night. The KS is coupled with 2 quartets by Haas, which was the main attraction of this disc. I found the KS to be relatively restrained both in dynamics and emotion, not what I had expected based on other discs that I have by the Quartet. It is still beautifully played but I thought that the players were intentionally being relatively restrained, perhaps in reaction to the playing of Czech ensembles of previous generations. An interesting alternative but when I play this disc in the future it will probably be for the Haas