Search - Franz Schubert, Busch String Quartet :: Schubert: String Quartets 14 "Death and the Maiden" & 15 / Busch String Quartet

The greatest Schubert's 15th Quartet on record

Anton Zimmerling | Moscow, Russia | 06/09/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD includes one of the best recordings of Schubert's 14th string quartet in D minor, D. 810, `Death and the maiden' and a reference performance of Schubert's last, 15th string quartet in G major, D. 887. For the D minor quartet I would consider this version along with the Julliard quartet 1959 version Juilliard String Quartet Plays Beethoven, Schubert and my personal favourite, the Hungarian quartet Schubert: String Quartets 13 - 15 & String Quintet; Hungarian Quartet. As for D. 887, this performance of the Busch quartet, recorded in 1938, can hardly be eclipsed. The 1938 sonics of D.887 is good for its time: the D minor quartet recorded in 1936 has a slightly inferior, though still enjoyable sound.



From all solo violinists, who played in a quartet on a regular basis, Adolf Busch (1891- 1952) was likely the most famous one. If you want to hear him as a soloist, try his recordings of the `Kreutzer' and `Spring' sonatas, where he is joined by his son-in-law, pianist Rudolf Serkin. Another high point in Adolf Busch's legacy is Schubert's trio in E flat, D. 929, Op. 100, recorded with Serkin and the cellist Herman(n) Busch, Adolf's brother. Hermann Busch's cello is heard on this CD too: the two remaining quartet members are Gösta Andreasson (2nd violin) and Karl Doktor (viola).

The sound of the Busch quartet is monochromatic, without colouristic effects characteristic, say, of the Emerson quartet. A loose parallel may be drawn to the playing of the string section of the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwangler: the timbres are mixed, all instruments interflow in one sound wave. The Busch used the downward portamento more sparsely than many other string quartets of their day. Their Schubert recordings have more vibrato than their Beethoven performances. But it is not the sound, but the conception, which makes this CD unique.



The Busch & Co. tended not to slow down on the second, lyrical subject: an approach like this is controversial, but here it works. This is seen nowhere better than in the first Allegro of D.887 (track 5). This movement oscillates between G major and G minor and has lots of abrupt tonal shifts and dynamic contrasts. If it is played slowly, as the indication Allegro molto moderato suggests, and the performers relax on all digressions from the hectic main subject, the movement will fall apart into a sequence of more dramatic and more slack episodes. The Busch quartet avoid this trap and withhold the tension: they set the movement at an uneven, but a very fast tempo [13'12]. As a result, the main motif gains in power from every digression, and the listener always keeps in mind how it sounded before. In the slow movement (track 6), the Busch emphasize the long tremolos. The threatening tremolo at ca. 4'00-4'30, with sharp accents in the bass, may seem overdone, but this is again a part of the conception: listen, how desperate and depressed the subject reappears immediately thereafter, at [4'38- 4'55]. The trio of the third movement (track 7, ca. 1'41- 4'26) does not charm the ear with outworldly timbres, as with Quartetto Italiano Schubert: The Last Four Quartets or Hungarian Quartet, but its tempo and intonation provide an ideal contrast to the restless impetus of the scherzo. The final, Allegro assai (track 8) is furious and fast: at 2'01 -2'05 the Busch make a true fanfare call - an imperative to continue the ghostly ride. Its mirror image, the retard at 2'55-3'04, forebodes that this ride has no good end. Both climactic passages in fact proceed from the dualism concealed in the first two bars of the finale: Schubert treacherously required sforzando in the first half of the subject, followed by an abrupt shift to `p' within the same bar. This is one musical idea, not two. If the performers make an unduly long pause between the two phases, change the rhythm or drag the second phase, you will get a fake dialogue of the subject with its echo. The Busch quartet happily do not play such tricks with the Schubert score. Their Schubert is always consistent, strict and convincing.





Both quartets can be played differently: apart from the comparisons mentioned above, I recommend the box set of the Amadeus quartet, including a fine D. 887 Amadeus Quartet: Haydn, Schubert, Brahms 1951-1957. But the combination of a powerful conception with an absolutely natural feeling of music, embodied in these performances of the Busch quartet, is unique.



A must for all those, who love Schubert and chamber music.

"

Robert Layton's Review in Gramophone

Record Collector | Mons, Belgium | 08/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Both quartets have been reissued in LP form on World Records and EMI Treasury. The Busch Quartet's account is now more than half-a-century old but it brings us closer to the heart of this work than any other that I have ever heard. As I said in reviewing it on LP the slow movement, in particular, has 'an unmatched and marvellous eloquence.' The same must also be said of the G major Quartet, a performance of surpassing beauty which reveals 'more of the depth and humanity of the score than any subsequent recording I have heard.' As the late Roger Fiske put it in his 1979 review, such are these performances that 'the music is quick to engross your thoughts to the exclusion of any consideration of the age of the recordings.""