Search - Johannes Brahms, Quartetto Italiano, Hephzibah Menuhin :: Brahms: Complete String Quartets; Clarinet Sonatas

Fine sound and solid playing

Craig Matteson | Ann Arbor, MI | 07/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a fine sounding disk with solid interpretations of the music. This collection provides all three string quartets with the two sontatas for clarinet and piano. It seems an odd mix, but somehow it works in this collection.Brahms writes so well for string quartet that I find myself wishing he had found a way to write more of them. Maybe he did and burned them. In any case, these are pieces to treasure and to listen to over and over again. And certainly you will want to hear different interpretations of these pieces.George Pieterson has a beautiful tone and plays the clarinet sontas with hepzibah Menuhin on the piano. They perform well together and let us hear a part of the repertoire we don't get exposed to unless we are clarinetists or accompanists or relatives to clarinetists! I have always loved the tone of the clarinet and there is a lot to love in these recordings.This fine recording is certainly worthy of a place in your collection."

NATION SPEAKS TO NATION

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 03/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of all 19th century composers Brahms is the most German and the least Italian. This makes it all the more pleasant to be able to recommend this account of his string quartets by the Italian Quartet as warmly as I do. Nothing on this pair of discs at all, either in the quartets or in the clarinet sonatas, strikes me as being my own idea of 'wrong'. Indeed nothing strikes me as being less than very good, and the performance of the A minor quartet at least is one that I would call completely outstanding. The players seem to understand Brahms's idiom perfectly, the playing itself is top-notch, and the recording, while perhaps not to the most spectacular modern standard, is right in every respect that really matters, particularly as regards the fullness of the sound.



Tempi throughout are well chosen. I found this to be particularly true of the tricky third movement of the C minor quartet. In this movement I might have liked just a little more prominence to be given to the lower of the two simultaneous melodies, but that is only a personal taste of my own, and the lower melody should not be completely equal to the higher in any case. Much more important is that the Italians do the trio section of this movement to absolute perfection, with the peculiar twanging effect that I always like to hear in the accompaniment. The A minor comes near absolute perfection for me from start to finish. Both the first movement, and even more so the second, need to be kept moving as they are here, the instrumental tone is superb throughout, and the minuet (another tricky piece to bring off) is judged to a nicety. In the third movement of the B flat the viola melody again is fervent and deeply felt as it should be, and the final set of variations is just about ideal too, particularly in the tempo rubato, where I have always thought Brainin's phrasing in the Amadeus version to be stiff and unconvincing.



This set also includes extremely fine accounts of the two clarinet sonatas, a convincing alternative to another fine disc I have where the performers are Thea King and Clifford Benson. These sonatas are Brahms's last chamber works, and they have an elegiac feel about them, particularly the first of the two. The whole effect here is richer, especially in terms of the clarinet sound, than from King and Benson, and I would not like to say which I prefer overall. For all the `sunset' mood of the works there is a good deal of forcefulness called for now and again, and these players are not afraid of that. Hepzibah Menuhin gives full value in the big chords, and while no sense of rush would be appropriate the speeds are not allowed to drag either, and rightly not.



I can't really say that you will find much illumination in the liner note, and I'd suggest that if you look for the influence of Beethoven that the author purports to find in the first movement of the C minor quartet you are not going to find it. It doesn't read to me either as if he has appreciated the significance of the wonderful slow movement of this quartet, where there really is influence from Beethoven - from no less than the cavatina of his B flat quartet op 130. The climactic phrase of the opening melody in particular recalls the same point in Beethoven's sublime inspiration, and as played here it stands up very well to the comparison.



All in all, a really admirable set despite this minor let-down. If Germany itself has produced a better version since the great days of the Busch Quartet I can't offhand recall which it is."

Mr. Brahms successfully downsizes

David A. Baer | Indianapolis, IN USA | 02/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As an amateur music lover with only a spotty control of the repertoire, it always amazes me when it turns out that a composer whom I've come to know via the big works--his symphonies, for example--excels in the small stuff as well.



The Quartetto Italiano does Brahms proud on this Philips Duo recording of his complete string and clarinet quartets. Brahms the late Romantic composer sounds almost modern in these tight, diminutive, four-pieces. Something of the Modernist angst comes into complement the celebratory reflex of Romanticism itself. One senses that we stand here at the hinge of two artistic eras.



Yet is is the Clarinet Sonatas that for me represent a revelation. This somewhat unlikely solo instrument pairs with the piano to create music of exquisite understatement. This is 'easy listening' in the best sense of the word and a sound I would never have considered 'Brahmsian'.



Whether a veteran quartet aficiionado or a newbie like myself, I think you'll find strong value in this excellent two-disk recording."