Léner Quartet
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
String Quartet No.10 in E flat major, Op.51, B 92 (1879)
String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, B179 ‘American’ (1893)
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81, B.155 (1887)
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
String Quartet No.1 in E minor ‘From My Life’; III Largo sostenuto (1876)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34 (1862-5)
Olga Loeser-Lebert (piano)
rec. 1926-38, London
Pristine Audio PACM122 [2 CDs: 132]
In Pristine Audio’s Léner Quartet restoration schedule we have now reached the Slavic repertoire with the addition of Brahms’ Piano Quintet, Op.34, which gives us two well-filled discs spanning the years 1926 to 1938. This quartet has long deserved a tribute such as this because for too long they were known largely for their Beethoven cycle which, remarkable though it was, hardly reflected the breadth of their repertoire. Releases such as this amplify their qualities of rich corporate sound, plentiful portamenti and a generous minded approach to singing, lyrical slow movements.
There are three major Dvořák works. The first is the Quartet in E flat major, Op.51, recorded in Abbey Road in 1938 and heard in much the best sound. Though this came toward the end of their time in Europe and indeed toward the end of the Léner Quartet’s existence, their warmly vibrated instincts are undiminished. A slightly later Busch Quartet recording, notwithstanding Adolf Busch’s commitment to the composer’s Violin Concerto, is not conspicuously superior. This warm, communicative 1938 reading, underpinned by Imre Hartman’s cello – hear him especially in the Dumka second movement adding rich rhythmic underpinning – shows that their eloquence in the central European chamber repertoire was not merely gemütlich but acutely perceptive.
The ‘American’ was recorded back in 1932, once again in Abbey Road. There was more competition at the time, notably from such well-established Czech ensembles as the Bohemian (Czech) Quartet which had recorded it in 1928 and the Ševčik-Lhotsy in 1929, whilst the London had chipped in with their version at the end of 1927. Like the Léner they recorded for Columbia and their version was withdrawn shortly after the Léner’s new recording appeared. The Hungarians play this well but it’s noticeable that they are rather laid back in the Scherzo. Their rich ensemble unions are admirable but there is a real stylistic difference between them and the Bohemians – sparing of vibrato, late nineteenth-century in orientation – the Ševčik-Lhotsy, slithering precariously on gut strings in the heat of the studio but playing with rapacious incision, and the London, the most modern-sounding ensemble. The Léner, as I said, play well enough but lack a touch of vitality and sheer personalisation.
The first disc also gives us the slow movement from Smetana’s Quartet No.1, the only movement the group recorded, in March 1926, and heard in somewhat muffly sound. It had a short catalogue life.
The Piano Quintet, Op.81 was recorded in Columbia’s Petty France studios – helpfully identified of late in a recent issue of For the Record – in October 1930 with pianist Olga Loeser-Lebert. Big hitters in the catalogue were Schnabel and the Pro Arte though my touchstone has always been the collaboration between the greatest Czech pianist of the first half of the century, Jan Heřman, and the Ondříček Quartet in their 1941 reading. Heřman phrases so imaginatively and with such bewitching rhythmic and phrasal sense he makes everyone else sound inert. Loeser-Lebert is a dutiful collaborator and the recording is fine for 1930 but it was to be eclipsed soon enough.
The final work is Brahms’s Quintet, Op.34 once again with Loeser-Lebert with whom the Léner worked extensively, as Tully Potter reminds the reader in his brief note. This was a March 1927 Wigmore Hall recording. The sound, as it was often the case in Wigmore Hall recordings of the time, could be a touch distant and there is a higher ratio of surface noise too. From time to time, therefore, the quartet has less tonal amplitude then one finds elsewhere, and the piano sound can be a touch cloudy. I am assuming there is a side change at 3:48 in the slow movement, as the players prepare for it. Again, this is a good performance though stylistically perhaps not the equal of the Flonzaley-Bauer and certainly not the famous Busch-Serkin.
Best not to leave on an equivocal point, however. A number of these recordings have been reissued over the years. Rockport did much good work for this quartet and reissued Opp. 51 and 81 on RR5015, though unfortunately in over-processed transfers. Opus Kura reissued Op.81 on OPK2114, which I’ve not heard, though their restorations tend not to be too interventionist. Mark Obert-Thorn’s work for Pristine Audio is characteristically excellent throughout.
Jonathan Woolf
Availability: Pristine Classical
