Returning to this particular piece after a string of other quartets, most of which have really pleased me, is a sobering experience as the scale of Bartok's accomplishment becomes even more abundantly clear. Maybe the only piece I recently heard that is able to provide some (emotional) counterweight to Bartok's musical equivalent of a supernova is Schnittke's Third Quartet. The Gorecki, which I listened to yesterday, is also a very fine piece of work and in its savage rusticity clearly has a kinship with Bartok's Fourth. But the point is that Bartok composed his quartet 60 years earlier than Gorecki. Kind of makes the point how visionary the former was.
The recording by the Zehetmair Quartett has met with considerable critical acclaim. It is indeed a ruthless reading of a ruthless piece. And yet it did not convince me. Allegedly the ensemble plays the piece by heart. And they play it brutally fast. The result is a performance with an air of frantic improvisation, as if we see an action painter at work. Maybe I was not in the right frame of mind, but for me it didn't work. I had the feeling to remain a fairly dispassionate onlooker at all these pyrotechnics. Another observation is that the recording of the ensemble is so sonically rich that it sounds more like a chamber ensemble than a quartet. I'll certainly give it another shot, but I am not at all sure it will change my assessment. The Takacs immediately sounded more to the point. Theirs is also a savage reading but I felt it to be more grounded and coherent. It does have its moments of unpleasant harshness though. Sampling the Belcea again, I find there the optimal balance between the Dyonisian and the Apollinian, between concentration and refinement.
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