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Bartók - String Quartets 1-6
 
 
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Bartók - String Quartets 1-6
~ Béla Bartók (Composer), Hagen Quartett (Performer)
5.0 out of 5 stars  (2 customer reviews)

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10 used & new available from Ł44.00
Product details
  • Composer: Béla Bartók
  • Performer: Hagen Quartett
  • Audio CD (19 Jun 2000)
  • Number of Discs: 2
  • Label: Deutsche Grammophon
  • ASIN: B00004SDO2
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 254,671 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Track Listings

1. Streichquartett No. 1 op. 7, Sz 40
2. Streichquartett No. 2 op. 17 Sz 67
3. Streichquartett No. 4 Sz 91
4. Streichquartett No. 3 Sz 85
5. Streichquartett No. 5 Sz 102
6. Streichquartett No. 6 Sz 114
7. No.4 - 1 - Allegro
8. - 2 - Prestissimo, Con Sordino
9. - 3 - Non Troppo Lento
10. - 4 - Allegretto Pizzicato
11. - 5 - Allegro Molto
12. No.3 - 1 - Prima Parte. Moderato - Attacca -
13. - 2 - Seconda Parte. Allegro - Attacca - Ricapitulazione Della Prima Parte. Moderato
14. - 3 - Coda. Allegro Molto
15. No.5 - 1 - Allegro
16. - 2 - Adagio Molto
17. - 3 - Scherzo. Alla Bulgarese
18. - 4 - Andante
19. - 5 - Finale. Allegro Vivace
20. No.6 - 1 - Mesto - Piu Mosso, Pesante - Vivace
See all 23 tracks on this disc
On this CD:
  1. String Quartet No. 1
    Composed by Béla Bartók

  2. String Quartet No. 2
    Composed by Béla Bartók

  3. String Quartet No. 3
    Composed by Béla Bartók

  4. String Quartet No. 4
    Composed by Béla Bartók

  5. String Quartet No. 5
    Composed by Béla Bartók

  6. String Quartet No. 6
    Composed by Béla Bartók

Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The history of the string quartet is defined by three giants--Haydn, Beethoven and Bartók--each of whom laid down the ground rules for everyone who came after. And as every quartet worth its salt has had a bash at all three, the choice for record-buyers is hard. My favourite recording of the Bartóks is by fellow-Hungarian Sándor Végh and his boys, but that is a vinyl set from 1960: their 1972 CD is tired and sedate. Since the Takács Quartet entered the fray (Decca 1998), they've been my runners-up. The Hagen Quartet comes in on the end of a hugely distinguished line, and must live or die by tough comparisons. By my reckoning, the players well but don't hit the jackpot. They have a beautifully clean sound and play with lovely expressiveness: impossible to fault in any way. But somehow they have neither the tenderness nor the gutsiness nor the ghostliness I look for--and which I find in the Takács. This group may now--after death and defection--be only 50 per cent Hungarian, but they've still got the true Magyar fire. --Michael Church

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star: 100%  (2)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars NEW TERRITORY, 27 May 2005
By DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This is really top-notch, but in a field where the competition is particularly strong. If you have a precise idea of how you like the Bartok quartets done I think you need to sample a good half-dozen current sets to see which suits you best. Myself, I am comparatively open to suggestion in this matter. Back in the 60's the Juilliard Qurtet recorded a set that ranks as a classic - they had been promoting the Bartok quartets as a specialisation. I recommend it fervently to anyone who can still find it on LP, as sadly it seems to be absent from today's catalogues. What intrigues me in comparing the Hagens with it is how different the overall impression contrives to be despite a close similarity in the more tangible features. Tempi throughout are very little different, to take the most obvious issue. The difference is in the instrumental tone, and it's emphasised by the type of recorded sound each is given. The recording of the Juilliard group is admirable, with perfectly silent surfaces for the first 5 works and only a minor flaw on the 6th. The Juilliard are warmer, the Hagens more austere. Occasionally I can pinpoint some difference, such as more vibrato from the Juilliards in the opening 'Mesto' of the last quartet, but overall it's a matter of a different 'feel', very perceptible but very hard to define.

There is no getting away from taking some kind of intellectual view of this music. Bartok is not always uncompromising and forbidding in his idiom to say the least. The first piano concerto is a flinty bit of work indeed and so is the Miraculous Mandarin ballet, but the more famous violin concerto and even (perhaps surprisingly) Bluebeard's Castle are far from difficult to come to terms with