Beethoven - String Quartets Nos. 9 & 10

Quatuor Turner:

Alessandro Moccia, violin
Adrian Chamorro, violin
Jean-Philippe Vasseur, viola
Ageet Zweistra, cello

Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 247 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 18 mb
Artwork @ 300dpi = 83 mb

Total playing time: 58:50
Recorded 1998 | Released 2001

Recording:
November 1998, Vereenigde Doopsgezinde Gemeente, Haarlem, Netherlands

Harmonia Mundi - HMC 905252

Track listing:
1. No.10, Op.74 'The Harp' - 1. Poco adagio - Allegro
2. No.10, Op.74 'The Harp' - 2. Adagio ma non troppo
3. No.10, Op.74 'The Harp' - 3. Presto
4. No.10, Op.74 'The Harp' - 4. Allegretto con variazoni
5. No.9, Op.59 No.3 'Razoumovsky' - 1. Introduzione. Andante con moto - Allegro vivace
6. No.9, Op.59 No.3 'Razoumovsky' - 2. Andante con moto quasi allegretto
7. No.9, Op.59 No.3 'Razoumovsky' - 3. Menuetto
8. No.9, Op.59 No.3 'Razoumovsky' - 4. Allegretto molto

Info:
"The music of a lunatic": this was the musical public's reaction to the three quartets of opus 59 dedicated to Count Razumovsky and published in 1807, a year after they were composed. It is true that this music is eminently surprising: if ever a work expressed triumph over tragedy whilst marking a decisive advance on its own time, it is the Quartet in C major, in the margin of which Beethoven wrote, "Henceforth, make no secret of your deafness, even in your art." As for opus 74 (1809), it represents (with opus 95) the painful transition between these revolutionary works and what we now call the "late quartets".

Reviews:
Amazon.com editorial review
The Turner Quartet is a period-instrument group that equals more traditional quartets in personality, warmth, and innate feeling for Beethoven's peerless works. They zero in on the right tempo for any given passage, display a comparable sense of structure and rhythmic drive, as well as a masterful sense of dynamics. In the "Harp Quartet," they capture the ghostly opening beautifully, albeit with the clipped-phrase endings that tell you their Beethoven interpretations look forward from an earlier style. The slow movements of both works are done lovingly, although the plucked cello in the Andante of Op. 59 No. 3 is not nearly as prominent as in less understated performances. Throughout, the Turner's instrumental blend is impeccable, and they negotiate the faster movements with admirable swing and precise articulation. Harmonia Mundi's excellent sound is an added attraction to performances that, while they don't supplant the Italiano, Emerson, Talich, and Vegh Quartets, can be welcomed as viable alternative recordings of these inexhaustible pieces.


Gramophone (click to enlarge)

ClassicsToday
Several years ago, Quatuor Turner taped a wildly unconventional and thrilling survey of Beethoven's Op. 18 quartets as its debut release on Harmonia Mundi's Les Nouveaux Interprètes series. Now the Turners are back, this time playing the Op. 74 "Harp" quartet and the last of the Razumovskys with similarly iconoclastic force, in performances that are constantly alive to the structural demands of the music. By coincidence, Op. 74 (with Opp. 95 and 135) was recently recorded by the British Eroica Quartet for Harmonia Mundi, and comparisons between the two are revealing.

With the Turners, you'll get playing that's more urgently incisive. But this bristling ferocity comes at a price, and there are moments when the Turners don't match their rivals' tonal refinement, nor do they explore the textural subtleties of the music so effectively. A key instance comes in Op. 74's mysterious preface to its first movement, where the Eroicas observe dynamics more astutely. But what grips the imagination so completely with the Turner performance is the way the players highlight dynamic and expressive contrasts: the portentous Adagio shocks and chills after the exaltation of the opening allegro and the six variations of the finale also are fully characterized.

Beethoven's sketches for the moto-perpetuo finale of the C major Razumovsky were inscribed, "let your deafness no longer be a secret, even in your art", and this courageous personal resolve and heroism is highly palpable in Quatuor Turner's exceptionally committed reading. There are many superb recordings of this quartet, but on period instruments the Turner Quartet seems unrivalled, and the recorded sound is outstanding.


Click here to preview
Click here to download