Arnold Schoenberg, Evelyn Lear, New Vienna String Quartet - Schoenberg: The String Quartets

Tradition-oriented but wonderful realizations of beautiful music

These are beautiful performances of beautiful works. The New Vienna Quartet's approach present Schönberg's quartets with the focus of being embedded in the tradition from Brahms rather than as the revolutionary and forward-looking works they are, but they are none the worse for that. It probably means that you are recommended to acquaint yourself with another point of view as well, e.g. the Kolisch, Arditti or Leipzig quartets, especially if you lament the New Vienna's omission of some early works. Yet, newcomers can safely - I'd say recommendably - start here.

Frankly, I am not sure about calling the first quartet a masterpiece, at least not without qualifications. Schoenberg certainly pushes the limits of tonality already in this one, and it is rich and heavily contrapuntual (anyone who thinks this is going to be an "easy" introduction to the "hard" later quartets will be sorely mistaken) but it seems, to be honest, to be a little ... wayward. No such reservations about the second quartet; a stunning masterpiece where the otherworldly beauty of the moment where tonality is relinquished is wonderfully realized by Evelyn Lear. The third quartet is often considered to be the most difficult, which is perhaps a little strange - at least when listening to the New Vienna Quartet. In fact, it comes across as the most lighthearted of the set and seems positively jolly at times, despite the total endorsement of the twelve-tone technique. The fourth quartet is a beautiful work which shows the flexibility of a composer who has by now fully mastered the new techniques; this quartet is, for instance, less concerned about avoiding tonal centers than the third one.

Schoenberg's quartet cycle may not, in the end, rival Bartok's (whose cycle is only challenged by Beethoven's), but the assured playing of the classically-minded New Vienna is sure to win new friends to these important works. December 4, 2008

3 1/2 good string quartet recordings

This is generally a fine recording. I enjoy the recording of the 3rd quartet particularly. First movement is more leisurely than the LaSalle Quartet's recording but otherwise just fine.

But what a horrible crime the engineers have committed in the 2nd Quartet! The last two movements can be agonizingly beautiful. Not here. When the soprano makes her entrance, they hush the quartet -- as if they had dropped a cloth over it. Then when her part is finished (measure 116 of the fourth movement), up comes the cloth and the full sound of the strings is restored (mm 117-156). Same thing happens in the 3rd movement. Was this in Evelyn Lear's contract? It certainly turns a lot of good music to fuzz.

Happily there are a number of recordings of the 2nd all by itself. (You can even have the string orchestra performance by I Musici de Montreal on Chandos.) So if you need recordings of the less recorded 3rd and 4th, this might be a fine choice. October 1, 2004

Wonderful rendition of some sadly underplayed masterpieces

Schoenberg's quartets are a good survey of his development as a composer. The early two quartets are tonal and late-romantic in style. They are accessible, full of pathos and contrapuntally dense. The last two quartets are in the full twelve-tone style of Schoenberg's mature period. These are also wonderful, but in a very different way. Full of interesting shapes and colors, like a Kandinsky painting. The performances here are top-notch, and render this potentially difficult music with great naturalness and feeling. Difficult listening, but very rewarding. April 20, 2004

A Revolutionary in Method, a Conservative in Tone

Although Schoenberg developed a revolutionary new method of organizing pitch, what is often overlooked is that serialism is just exactly that: a method of organizing pitch, and not a style per se. A variety of styles can be accomodated by this method. Folks who are a little gun-shy of serialism (or its aesthetic shadow) are sometimes caught up short when they actually listen to Schoenberg's music. For the fact is, all through his journey of exploring how pitch should be organized in a composition, which made him something of a revolutionary, stylistically he was always post-Romantic in temperament - which, ironically, made him something of a dinosaur to serial idealogues in the 1950s, such as Pierre Boulez.

In a way which invites comparison to Bartók's six, Schoenberg's four quartets span his career. The striking thing, perhaps, is how unified they are in "voice," despite the composer's epochal adventures in How to Organize Pitch. These pieces are seldom performed by string quartets in the states, and it is difficult to see why, since in many respects, they are no harder on the ears than the Bartók quartets, which enjoy a solid berth in chamber recitals.

The first movement of the third quartet plays itself out in a very scherzando vein; it may even strike some as strangely cheerful in activity, considering its acerbic chromaticism.

The third movement of the fourth quartet is, simply, beautiful. If anyone wonders if Schoenberg was capable of writing beautiful music, this Largo is quite possibly the strongest case pro.

There is a restlessness to the music, it is always surging ... somewhere. So I am not sure that it can be my favorite music in the world; but it is well made, perfectly suited to the medium of the string quartet, and there are often passages of beauty which startle with their strangeness. July 11, 2002

Gemutlich Schoenberg

Leave it to a Viennese Quartet to make Schoenberg sound like far out Brahms. I grew up on the marvelous Kolisch Quartet's monoaural recordings of these masterworks. While the New Vienna Quartet does not have the authority of the Kolisch (Rudolph Kolisch was Schoenberg's son-in-law) it is an excellent reading of this music, one that brings out the classical aspects of this stunning music.

The readings of the two tonal quartets are excellent. The New Vienna gets the marvelous concision and motivic integrety of the d minor quartet...a work that bends the tonal system at least as far as Reger. The 2nd quartet is just as stunning with beautiful singing by Evelyn Lear in the last two movements.

The real find in this set is the 3rd quartet. I have often found this piece to be the most antiseptic of the quartets and have not often found myself drawn to performances. This performance has caused me to reevaluate the piece. It is almost neoclassic in it's form and quite well argued. It almost sounds like Brahms at times, although Brahms in an atonal context.

The final quartet is also beautifully played and one of Schoenberg's finest pieces. Though oestensibly atonal, it often sounds centered on d minor.

At a twofer price, this CD is a great way to introduce yourself to these seminal 20th century masterworks. June 24, 2002

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