Hagen Fuerstenau asks:

>The recent thread about twelve-tone-music (to avoid the d-word...  ;-)
>has got me curious about Schoenberg and so, after having enjoyed
>"Verklaerte Nacht" some time ago, I thought the first two string
>quartets would be the right way to go towards atonality.

I think you're right, Hagen, that's as good a route as any.

Many years ago, after the First Quartet had concluded a chamber music
concert by a now-unremembered quartet, a composer friend of mine rolled his
eyes at me and remarked, "Three-quarters of an hour of nonstop arrogance!"

There's a kernel of truth in that thumbnail judgement, but the music
remains worth experiencing.  The second quartet is where it all comes
together, or falls apart, according to one's point of view.

Now as to recordings, we may have a problem or two with much of what is
available.

 [1] The Arditti Quartet does the numbered quartets [Disques Montaigne MO
782024, two CDs], with consistent analytical clarity, and with icy refusal
to confront their romantic origin.  I find them least satisfactory in the
"developing" quartets, Nos.  1 and 2.

 [2] The LaSalle Quartet [in "Neue Wiener Schule," DG 419 4-2, 4 CDs, also
including the D Minor Quartet of 1897, and the complete quartet music of
Berg and Webern] has a similar but rather less ruthlessly literal approach.

 [3] I like the head-on manner in which the *old* Juilliard Quartet played
the numbered quartets in their mid-50s Columbia mono LPs, but these are
long out of print.  and their sound is dry beyond modern tolerances.
Good used LP copies are not hard to obtain, and not expensive.

 [4] The Juilliard Quartet stereo remake is in more tolerable sound, but
the manner remains less than emollient.  Originally on CBS LPs, these may
have been reissued on Sony CDs.  The run includes the 1897 quartet [which
incidentally sounds vaguely like Dvorak].  The LPs are common and
inexpensive on the used-record market.  I regard this set as the most
desirable and illuminating of the "complete" runs.

Individual issues by the Schoenberg Quartet [Koch and Orfeo] are good,
erring [if one so regards it] only on the side of excessive tonal warmth
and roomy acoustics.  I wish the Emerson Quartet would take up this music.
They seldom get anything wrong.

Finally, some small label distributed here by Albany Records has reissued
the Kolisch Quartet recordings, made on the West Coast just before the last
war, and supervised by the composer.  Taken from well-worn acetates, the
sound is brutal, [I've only heard Alco's early-50s releases on transparent
red vinyl] but I'm sure these will provide ample illumination of
Schoenberg's larger plans.

John Wiser
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