Bartok: The String Quartets (1950 Recordings)

Bela Bartok (Composer), The Juilliard Quartet (Artist)

Product Details

• Composer: Bela Bartok
• Audio CD (November 20, 2001)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Pearl
• ASIN: B00005Q63A
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,567 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. No. 1 in A minor, Op. 7: Lento

2. No. 1 in A minor, Op. 7: Allegretto (Allegro)

3. No. 3: Prima parte; Moderato

4. No. 3: econda parte; Ricapitulazione della prima parte (Moderato)

5. No. 3: Coda; Allegro molto

6. No. 5: Allegro

7. No. 5: Adagio molto

8. No. 5: Scherzo

9. No. 5: Andante

10. No. 5: Finale )Allegro vivace)

Disc: 2

1. No. 2 in A minor, Op. 17: Moderato

2. No. 2 in A minor, Op. 17: Allegro molto capriccioso

3. No. 2 in A minor, Op. 17: Lento

4. No. 4: Allegro

5. No. 4: Prestissimo, con sordino

6. No. 4: Non troppo lento

7. No. 4: Allegretto pizzicato

8. No. 4: Allegro molto

9. No. 6: Mesto; Vivace

10. No. 6: Mesto; Marcia

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bartók's quartets are regarded by many as the greatest since Beethoven's. Like his, they span the composer's creative life, and though they are not presented in chronological order here, Bartók's changing styles and compositional development are clearly apparent, as is the motivic connection between them. They have become part of the mainstream repertoire, and for this, much of the credit must go to the Juilliard Quartet, formed at the Juilliard School of Music in 1946, which in 1949 presented the complete cycle publicly in New York for the first time. As artists-in-residence and members of the faculty, the players always championed contemporary composers, particularly Bartók, and have instilled that attitude in generations of young musicians.

This monaural recording was made in 1950 by the group's founding members (a stereo version was made later, after two personnel changes) and it is superb. The young players' technical, intellectual, and emotional command of these extremely difficult, problematic works is astounding. Bartók's musical language, so closely tied to his native Hungarian idiom, seems to come to them naturally. They handle his complicated, constantly changing rhythms with consummate ease and bring out the character and the wildly contrasting moods and emotions of the music with deeply felt expressiveness, from the obsessive dances--unbridled but always controlled--to the heartbreaking lamentations of the last quartet, written on the eve of World War II. Listeners familiar only with the group's later constellations of players may be surprised at the purity, warmth, and homogeneity of its sound (the two violinists are almost indistinguishable), and at the moderate, expansive tempos, despite the Quartet's reputation for speed and high-voltage tension, allowing time and repose to give loving attention to details and expression to every note.

The booklet contains two errors: Jenö Léner was a Hungarian violinist who led his own string quartet; the violist of the Kolisch Quartet, dedicatees of Bartók's sixth quartet, was Eugene Lehner, coach and mentor to innumerable young groups. The clarinetist who recorded Bartók's "Contrasts" with Robert Mann must be Stanley Drucker, principal of the New York Philharmonic. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Juilliard's Masterly Bartok, April 12, 2005

By	Jeffrey Lipscomb (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Congratulations to Pearl for this seminal Bartok set, and to Edith Eisler for her illuminating Amazon editorial review. I heard the Juilliard perform the 3rd Quartet at Jordan Hall (Boston) in 1971, and it was simply spellbinding. The players at that time were comprised of Robert Mann & Earl Carlyss (violins), Samuel Rhodes (viola) and Claus Adam on cello. This pioneering 1950 set from Pearl has the Juilliard's original personnel (Mann and Robert Koff, with violist Raphael Hillyer and cellist Arthur Winograd), while their 1963 stereo recording featured Mann and Isidore Cohen (violins) with Hillyer and Adam. There was also a 1981 set, but it was a sadly-anemic shadow of these earlier recordings. The 1963 version was briefly available on CD as a Sony import - it is urgently in need of re-issue.

In the notes that came with my 1963 Columbia LPs (I missed out on the Sony CD), author James Goodfriend observes that " ... The mystique of the string quartet is twofold. In the first place, it must be classically controlled and balanced. In the second, it must express the composer's inmost feelings. The relation between a quartet and a symphony, for example, is much like that of poetry and prose: they may each say similar things, but the former must say it with fewer words and with greater restrictions. The great quartet writers of the past were Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert (significantly, none of the later romantics can be cited), and in our own century, the six Bartok quartets form quite possibly the only set worthy to stand in such company." I agree. And perhaps terse and verse rhyme for a reason.

While there are many worthy competitors here, such as the proficient but emotionally-reserved Emerson Quartet and the more rustic-sounding Takacs, for me the Juilliard plumbs the inner fire of these works like no other ensemble. In 1950 they play with greater repose (slower and more meditative), while in 1963 their cat-like agility and dynamic precision are without parallel. Both sets are essential listening.

Works of burning joy and lonely desolation,
Quartets mirror all of Bartok's obsessions,
The Juilliard's way is profound revelation,
Let it be one of your prized possessions.

Jeff Lipscomb

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable performances!, November 23, 2005

By	Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The artistic commitment of Bela Bartok is absolutely extraordinary. His architectural sense, his deep concerns about the man and the cosmos has been never best expressed but through his Quartets Cycle. There is certain superficiality when it is affirmed he is an atonal composer. That statement is apparent; his inspiration arises from a fantastic melting of Hungarian folk music, but also a cosmic gaze. There is fullness and grandness extremely hard to put in words context. In this sense his concerns are very similar respect Bruckner; that is why the outer space inspiration certainly, does not reveal human motives and a total breakthrough with the ancient musical forms.

If you want to get close to Bartok 's world, please acquire this invaluable set, that remains just two echelons bellow both versions of Vegh Quartet; the most recent version of the Paris cycle in 1954 (My first choice, by far, from Music and Arts) and the other (Auvidis).