It's a good idea to start at the beginning.  Opus 5 is Carl Nielsen's
first string quartet.  There has been some discussion on the list about
his string quartets and the recordings that have been issued.  My general
opinion was that I liked every recording I had.

Andrew Carlan keeps mentioning Nielsen, so I thought I'd provide a
more detailed comparison of recorded versions of the string quartets.
For opus 5, I have the Danish String quartet on Kontrapunkt, Vertavo on
Simax, and Kontra on BIS.  Opus 5 is an excellent quartet; it has highly
lyrical passages and some menacing power-charged passages.  In an excellent
performance, the artists must well highlight these two extreme poles.
Also, this is a "rich" quartet which needs no additional rich acoustic
from the recording engineers.

After extensive listening to the three versions of opus 5, it's "thumbs
up" for the Danish and Vertavo, "thumbs down" for the Kontra.  The Danish
String Quartet fully provides the menace and danger of the quartet - those
signals just kept hitting me very effectively.  Also, the lyrical passages
are well handled as well.  The sound on Kontrapunkt is perfect - dry to the
bone.

The Vertavo String Quartet also does a splendid job.  They can be very
fast, but there is no loss of excitement.  Also, their version of the 2nd
movement is easily the best of the three recordings.  Good sound - not dry,
not rich.

The Kontra was a different story.  First, the acoustic is way too rich.
It hides details and makes the work sound like a Tchaikovsky piece.  The
performances are not special either.  There's no menace, no sense of
impending doom, just a run-through until coffee break time.  Lyrical
passages are handled better, but still nothing note-worthy.

Overall, top billing goes to the Danish String Quartet.  Their performance
is at least as good as the Vertavo, and the sound is superb for the music.
I might find the Kontra doing a better job with the other quartets, but I'm
skeptical.

In future postings, I'll review the recordings of Nielsen's other string
quartets.  I can't do this all at once; I'm a busy man.  You might wonder
how I can do this at all, since I've mentioned that my cd storage method
stands for "chaos." I'm in the process of changing all that and going to an
alphabetical system.  Why I started with the letter "N" only Mother Nature
knows.  But, in this era where individual responsibility is not in vogue,
I won't consider myself responsible.  I'll blame Andrew who I assume has
every Nielsen string quartet recording ever made.

Don Satz
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