Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
String Quartet No. 19 in C major K.465, ‘Dissonant’
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’
Fine Arts Quartet
rec. 1986, St Barnabas Church, London
Le Palais des Dégustateurs LPDD046 [69]

Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Fine Arts Quartet has toured internationally for eighty years and has a huge discography. It has had only two leaders: Leonard Sorkin, from 1946 to 1981, and Ralph Evans, from 1982 to the present. Its current members are violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico (who have been playing together in the Quartet since 1983), violist Gil Sharon, and cellist Niklas Schmidt. This reissue recorded in 1986 thus features two previous members on viola and cello.

Back in 2011 I wrote an admiring review of their Saint-Saëns quartets for Naxos, for whom they have done a lot of recording when again they had a different violist.

The quaintly named label responsible for this reissue is an independent French outfit specialising in high-quality recordings, often made in exceptional locations (castles, vineyards, etc.) and with internationally renowned performers. Such niche enterprises are to be found in several European countries, some of which confine themselves to recordings which the big labels have allowed to fall out of the catalogue.

However, you could hardly name more celebrated, popular or oft-recorded string quartets than those by the two sadly short-lived composers featured here, nor was the venue especially unusual, so we must assume that the motivation here is to alert collectors to, or remind them of, the existence performances of exceptional quality in best sound.

This was originally released on the Lodia label. There are so many recordings of these works that preference is somewhat subjective; for the Schubert I favour the Amadeus and the Sacconi quartets – the latter reviewed here and nominated as a Recording of the Month – and for the Mozart I have long loved the Tokyo Quartet’s earlier account (currently unavailable on CD) alongside the Chilingirians (review).

The crucial Adagio opening to the ‘Dissonance’ is played with a slow, creeping intensity which is right, and the switch into the joyous, tripping Allegro after twenty-bars of uncertainty is deftly managed. The movement is subsequently played hard and fast – indeed, somewhat faster than most but without sacrificing lyricism – and the balance among the four instruments is ideal. The Andante cantabile could not be more meltingly played; each player produces such lovely, dense, burring tone. Dynamics are artfully graded to provide maximum variety and emotional impact and as ever with great string quartets, each instrument takes the spotlight in turn but the cello grounds the performance. The Menuetto first trips along gaily but then there is a searing melancholy to the central B section. As with the first movement, for the finale the quartet takes Mozart’s instruction Allegro molto at his word and it is played very fast, permitting them to display their virtuosity without seeming flashy. The succession of sawing chords in the main motif and the rapid scales as the instruments rapidly exchange and interplay as equals are beautifully caught in resonant sound by the engineers – although the booklet gives no identification as to their identities.

As with all great accounts of this quartet, the listener is left with the true and indelible impression that this was Mozart’s greatest achievement in the genre.

The Schubert begins with the same gritty determination and acoustic presence that mark the Mozart, and again the care the quartet apply to the dynamics, varying between the violent and the whispered, is very apparent. It goes without saying that intonation is flawless despite the energy and abandon of their attack. The second movement theme and five variations characterise the dual antithetical protagonists vividly as each instrument in turn is rightly accorded prominence in the sound picture but the poignant sweetness of the continuously flowing, semiquaver arpeggios by Ralph Evans on first violin is especially striking; the movement ends in rapt calm. A brief respite is granted by the rumbustious Scherzo sandwiching the gentle Trio but as with the Mozart, the finale is taken very fast indeed and smacks of breathless desperation.

These two accounts are as fine as any in the catalogue and make a valuable pairing.

Ralph Moore