Chiaroscuro Quartet
77:31
BIS BIS-2688
Although I’m not aware of any announcement to the effect, this release and a disc to hand (to be reviewed shortly) containing the third of the opus 59 ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets and opus 95 in F minor would seem to confirm that the Chiaroscuro Quartet are making their way toward a complete cycle. If so, it will make for a fascinating contrast with another period instrument intégrale by the Narratio Quartet. A review of the Narratios own set of opus 59 can be found on this site.
The string quartet has often been considered the medium that offers the greatest challenge to composers. The three composers that form not only the string quartet’s foundations but also its apogée – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven – all seemed to recognise this to one degree or another. We find it implied by Haydn when he left a gap of nearly a decade between the six quartets of opus 20 and those of opus 33, which he described as ‘written in an entirely new way’ and articulated by Beethoven when following the revision of his opus 18, no 1 he wrote to a friend, ‘only now do I know how to write proper quartets’.
Some two years later Beethoven’s next step was a staggering further leap forward with the three quartets of opus 59, termed the ‘Razumovsky Quartet’s’ after the count of that name, Russian ambassador to Vienna and the commissioner of the quartets. It is not necessary to go further than the opening of the first of the trio, the Quartet in F to recognise that Beethoven has entered a new world barely hinted at in the opus 18 quartets. Not only is the harmony adventurous but the lyrical first motif appears not in the upper part as one would expect, but in the bass. There is already a spacious feel to the music and it is no surprise to learn the quartets of opus 59 aroused comment not only because of their length but also because of their complexity, which disturbed some of Beethoven’s contemporaries. Needless to say such challenges cause no problem to the Chiaroscuros, one of the most technically accomplished string quartets around today, who from the outset of that F- major Quartet find an affectionate lyricism that will be transformed into the supreme virtuosity with which the complex contrapuntal writing of the development is laid out. Rubato is used sparingly but to nothing like the extent it is a part of the radical approach of the Narratio Quartet, whose use of portamento has no place here. The sound picture is indeed remarkably ‘clean’, with the most full-blooded of chunky chords played with outstanding precision and regard for ensemble, while at the other end of the spectrum it encompasses a fleeting filigree delicacy. Neither is expressivity lacking, most notably in the wonderfully elegiac Adagio molto e mesto, which brings some sublime mezzo voce playing.
The opening Allegro of the Quartet in E-minor, opus 59, no 2 in E minor asks for and here receives considerable agility before the Molto adagio enters into a world of profound tragedy, here unwaveringly sustained. That the Chiaroscuros are as happy with Beethoven in more unbuttoned mode can be heard in final allegro of the F-major Quartet and Allegretto of the E minor, a scherzo. Both carry the marking ‘Théme russe’ a reminder that Razumovsky had specifically asked Beethoven to include either authentic or invented Russian themes in ‘his’ quartets.
As should have become clear from the foregoing, these are exceptional ‘historically informed’ performances that offer superb playing on a more modest scale than the head- on challenge the Narratio’s present to the listener.
Brian Robins