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Going on a sort of weeks-long Cherubini string quartet "binge", comparing complete sets of the composer's multi-movement numbered quartets, in the three integral performances of all of these works on record, gives rise to some observations about the music itself and the recorded renditions thereof. The works are enchanting and never-failing in inventiveness; it is hard to get those many quirky melodies, harmonies, incredible rhythmic vitality (in all of the parts, Cherubini's part-writing being so wonderfully vital and interesting for every instrument), tangy and/or odd harmonies, and clever (sometimes wonderfully strange yet utterly convincing!) modulations out of the head. Luigi Cherubini's string quartets, for those unfamiliar with works composed for Paris in the "quatuor concertant" manner, are quite distinct in style from the more familiar Viennese quartets of the composer's contemporaries Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Hummel. These works of Luigi Cherubini above all emphasise wit, rhythmic verve, and virtuousity alike in string playing and difficult ensemble unity; indeed, Cherubini composed all of his works for string quartet and for string quintet to feature the virtuoso quartet playing of the greatly skilled string players of Paris' best chamber ensembles of the first half of the 19th century.
A comparison is in order for the Hausmusik's and Quartetto David's complete sets (the latter group's recordings available so far only on three individual discs comprising together all of the six works, rather than also as a set, as is the case with the alternative choices as separate discs or set for Hausmusik's performances). Listening to them, and relistening to them side-by-side, does make this listener even more convinced of the superiority of the Quartetto David's performances, which are much bolder and live up with more daring verve, "no holds barred", to the really radical elements in Cherubini's chamber music writing without holding back. The Hausmusik performances are too timid; the group is rhythmically precise and alive, all right (in music difficult to play with unanimous ensemble, due to its brilliant difficulties, frequent changes of pace and rhythm, and certain other characteristics, as I know from having tried to participate in playing these works myself, as the ensemble's 'cellist). However, Hausmusik simply does not make enough of the vast and quite dramatic gestures and dynamic contrasts and changes in the music, limitations on Hausmusik's part which stifle these gloriously alive and playful quartets unnecessarily. By contrast, the Quartetto David, as the Melos Quartett of Stuttgart before it, revels in the most vivifying and quirky aspects of Cherubini's chamber music writing that seem to give fright to Hausmusik's members.
Howbeit, there is a notable preference to savour for Hausmusik's performance of the second of Cherubini's quartets (in C major), which, for a change, actually benefits from these players' restraint, unlike the damper that Hausmusik too inappositely applies to the other five works. (As many Amazon users may know, three of the four movements derive from Cherubini's sole symphony in D major, the predominant key of the music's original conception); Quartetto David's thrusting assualts on this work's music, give rise to results too innapropriate for the good of the music of the second quartet, making one think back longingly but unfittingly to the symphony's brilliant orchestration, to the comparative disadvantage of the quartet writing's suavely intimate instrumentation, whereas Hausmusik makes the second string quartet sound more idiomatically like genuine chamber music in scope. (Cherubini's symphony had not been well received during his lifetime and was published only posthumously, and the composer merely made the quartet version as an attempt to give the work a second chance at success, which it achieved, but today the symphony is the better-known version of the music, rightly so.)
Even if the buyer already owns the venerably pioneering and musically still very competitive set of Cherubini's six quartets as the Melos Quartett of Stuttgart performed and recorded them (first released in a boxed LP set, later on CD) for Deutsche Grammophon, it is well worth listening to the music in Quartetto David's recording, and, as a worthy supplement, to Hausmusik's fine recording of the second quartet (which one can obtain without purchasing the entire set, being available coupled with the fifth of these quartets on C.P.O. Schalplatten 999-464-2). Enjoy the music to the full as the Quartetto David renders all of it (which would merit a "5-star evaluation, compared to Hausmusik's "4-star" rating) in the exciting performances that Quartetto David recorded (B.I.S. Grammofon BIS-CD-1003, BIS-CD-1004, and BIS-CD-1005). If the sheer brilliance of Quartetto David's performances makes a listener feel a bit fatigued from the joyously relentless, sheer drive and bravura that they bring to this music, hear the quartets one or two at a time as the Quartetto David presents them, or simply opt for the Melos Quartett's recording, with its fine counter-balancing of energy and refinement to the detriment of neither in this volatile music, that is, if you can locate a copy of their D.G.G. set; Hausmusik's comparatively vitiated and low-key performances are less demanding of the listener's psychic energy as a listening experience, but the music seems to pall a bit too much as they play it, the more so if one listens to all of the quartets at one sitting. There has been yet another recorded performance, by the Quartetto Savinio (on the Stradivarious label) of Cherubini's complete numbered string quartets, too recently issued (2008) and as yet rather elusive to obtain, to compare with those of Quartetto David, Hausmusik, and the Melos Quartett.
Though it has become difficult to source for purchase in recent years, there are many good reasons to favour the Melos Quartett's recording of Cherubini's string quartets. In fact, the only flaw that besets the Melos Quartett's set overall is the peculiar failure of the Melos musicians to rise to the summits of wit and sublimity inherent in the music of the sixth of these quartets. In that 1837 work in A minor, both Quartetto David and Hausmusik surpass the uncharacteristically limp and flaccid albeit highly competent playing that the Melos Quartett brings to the composer's sixth and final multi-movement work in the form. Otherwise, one could make a good case that the Melos Quartett's recorded set, so far as the first five string quartets are concerned, remains definitive, energetic, humourous, and boldly played, the music's expressive features set in relief as high as that of the Quartetto David's recordings of these works (and, to their credit, of the sixth quartet as well), but without so much of the slashing attacks and brashness that grate on the listener's nerves when these traits at times seem to be too unrelentingly in evidence as the Quartetto David sets them forth. As for the second quartet, the Melos Quartett's performance is grander in scale and more exciting than Hausmusik's pleasingly smaller-scale performance, yet has much of the lilt and equanimity that make Hausmusik's rendition so more preferable to the Quartetto David's distorted rhetoric in the music of this particular work.
"Go for the gusto", as one says, with the Quartetto David's (or Melos Quartett's) high-spirited playing of these works, rather than with the relaxed but ultimately somewhat enervating interpretive profile of Hausmusik.
The "final score" for the three complete sets of Cherubini's string quartets, in a "Desert Isle" competition, would be, tabulating work-by-work, for the sake of those collectors whose finances really can cope with the purchase of multiple performances of this repertoire:
Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5: Melos Quartett of Stuttgart
No. 2: Melos Quartett of Stuttgart, but with an enthusiastic "special mention" for Hausmusik, for its convincingly alternative approach in this problematic work
No. 6: Quartetto David
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