Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 7 in F major, op. 59/1
String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, op. 59/2
Chiaroscuro Quartet
rec. 2025, Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK
Reviewed as lossless download
BIS BIS2688 SACD [74]

This is the fourth Beethoven release by the Chiaroscuro Quartet on BIS, and with one exception, the others have been very well received by my colleagues (review ~ review ~ review). I have been dazzled by their Haydn performances, so I’m not entirely sure why I have been so tardy in catching up with their Beethoven.

When I encountered the Chiaroscuro Quartet for the first time, back in 2017, I remember being initially discomforted by the sound of the instruments, the gut strings and the vibrato-less playing being so different to what I had encountered before in Haydn. I adjusted, but moving on to Beethoven, it seems that adjustment is needed again, because the more intense style of music leads to a more intense performance. Consequently, crescendos at the top of the violin’s register can seem a little like a knife stab.

Let me save some of you some time before commenting further. If you want your middle-period Beethoven to be genial and relaxed, look away now. If, however, you expect edginess and drama, the Chiaroscuro Quartet delivers, but there is also beauty and grace. They are not an “easy” listen, but they are absolutely compelling.

The “Razumovsky” quartets, written at the request of the Russian ambassador to Vienna, were not received well by audiences in 1807, with various derogatory adjectives applied by critics.  The slow movement from the first quartet must have been one of those movements which baffled listeners, being so different to what they expected from the polite, often humorous, world of the Haydn quartets, and indeed, Beethoven’s own op. 18 set. It bears an inscription in the composer’s hand referring to his brother’s grave, and is tortured and grief-stricken. The Chiaroscuros give full rein to this haunted atmosphere. The final movement “Thème russe” will have taken the audience back to some sense of familiarity, with dance rhythms and humour. It uses a Russian theme as requested by Count Razumovsky, but takes the sad Slavic melody and transforms it into a high-spirited dance – one wonders what the Count thought – again brilliantly captured by the players.

The second quartet is even more of a signpost to the late quartets and sonatas in its changing moods, silences and unpredictable shifts in tonality. The huge opening Allegro is so powerful and dramatic, both in the writing and performance, it is as though we are hearing a Beethoven symphony; little wonder that one critic described the quartets as the work of a “madman”. The Molto Adagio is subtly different to its counterpart in No. 1, the grieving more restrained, less angst-ridden. In the third movement, neither a scherzo or minuet, the first audiences will have been again thrown into confusion by the agitated, ever-changing rhythms, and the seemingly less than respectful treatment of another Russian theme. The Chiaroscuros revel in the movement’s complexity, but they are even better in the finale, which is absolutely dazzling, without question the highlight of the whole disc.

My comparison recordings, from my collection, are the Artemis (Erato), Kodály (Naxos) and Cleveland (Telarc) quartets. The former, on modern instruments, adopt a similar approach to the Chiaroscuros in terms of tempos (mostly) and intensity, and are equally compelling, though the breakneck speed adopted for the finale of op. 59/2 was not a success. The latter pair are more old-school, significantly slower (for the most part), more genial, and not at the forefront of the way Beethoven is played these days (each is more than twenty-five years old). For “everyday” listening, I think the Artemis would be my preference; the Chiaroscuros live life on the edge to such an extent that it could become a little overwhelming. However, in concert, the experience of hearing them would, I suspect, be extraordinary (hint, hint, please come to New Zealand).

The sound is very immediate as one normally expects from BIS engineers, but unfortunately in this case, it has caught one of the quartet at a time when they had the sniffles, and the noisy inhalations are obvious and not infrequent. Otherwise, the delineation of the instruments is superb, and the booklet notes are of the usual excellent standard for this label.

There‘s no question that this is Beethoven at the limits, which can occasionally be exhausting, but it is always compelling.

David Barker

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