Bartok - String Quartet nr. 3/Ligeti - String Quartet nr. 1

I gave Bartok's Third Quartet another go. It's an explosive, fascinating piece that packs a dense musical process in a mere 15 minutes. First I listened to the Keller Quartet, which impressed me less than during the first audition. The recording is strangely muffled. That may have something to do with it. They try to invest the music which a certain lyrical quality, which only partially works. I do not have the feeling that the tectonic complexity of the music has been fully done justice. The 1970s Vegh is an eminently satisfying reading, earthbound and forthright. Despite its plainness, it has a monumental character. The Belcea Quartet offers a more modern interpretation. The playing is breathtakingly accomplished and their blended voices strike me as almost symphonic. It is a reading of almost terrifying ferocity. I love listening to it. Maybe the virtuosity will wear off after a while? Time will tell. It's certainly good to be able to return to the more levelheaded Vegh whenever needed.

I followed up with an audition of Ligeti's First string quartet: 'Métamorphoses Nocturnes'. Ligeti wrote it in 1953-54 for the bottom drawer in a Budapest that was still in the iron grip of Communist dictatorship. In the liner notes to the Sony recording (with the Arditti Quartet) the composer writes: "I was inspired to write String Quartet nr. 1 by Bartok's two middle string quartets, his Third and Fourth, although I knew them only from their scores, since performances of them were banned. In the present instance, 'métamorphoses' signifies a set of character variations without an actual theme but developed out of a basic motivic cell (two major seconds, displaced by a minor second). Melodically and harmonically, the piece rests on total chromaticism, whereas, from a point of view of form, it follows the criteria of Viennese Classicism (...) Apart from Bartok, Beethoven's Diabelli Variations were my 'secret ideal'." As a double homage to Bartok, the conjunction of a variational principle and a nocturnal mood is certainly apt.

According to Richard Steinitz in 'György Ligeti - Music of the Imagination' (Northeastern University Press, 2003), Ligeti submitted the work for the 1955 Queen Elisabeth Competition for string quartet. However, I have not been able to trace this back in the Competition's on-line archives. In any case, the quartet was not withheld, and didn't even figure amongst the top 10 as it was likely deemed 'too traditional'. Well, I don't find it quite traditional, but it is indeed not a very strong work. Certainly compared to the astonishing density and intricacy of Bartok's Third Quartet it does not compare favourably. Apparently the work did not come easy to Ligeti. It was the first time he projected on such a large canvas. So there were numerous false starts and dead ends. One can still sense that in the final composition which betrays a stylistic heterogeneity and an uneveness of invention.

The quartet is a succession of 8 short quasi-movements. At first these movements are still clearly separated from one another and one still has a feeling of thematic development (although there strictly speaking no theme). Indeed, there is a lot that reminds of Bartok. But as the work unfolds, Ligeti moves into more abstract - texturally exciting, but musically less satisfying - sonoric experiments. There is an occasional, not too subtle, wink. A lot of the music is harsh, prestissimo pounding of the strings. Steinitz sees in the quartet 'a taut, logically argued composition, a single movement of almost symphonic dimensions' but that was not what I picked up. That doesn't mean that the music is not fun to listen too. In fact, it is. I find it even more easily accessible than the Bartok which was written almost thirty years earlier.

Maybe I was too close with my nose on the music, as I listened twice in short succession with the headphones. I will certainly re-listen on the speakers to check whether a little more distance allows me to better appreciate the overall structure of the piece.