Tchaikovsky

String Quartets; String Sextet in D minor (Souvenir de Florence) Vladimír Buka (viola),

Petr Prause (cello); Quatuor Danel CPO 555 292-2 145:46 mins (2 discs)

After their pioneering cycle of Weinberg’s quartets, Quatuor Danel move into more familiar territory with this impressively performed and beautifully recorded survey of Tchaikovsky’s string chamber music. Given their attention to 20th-century repertoire, it’s perhaps not surprising that the Danels bring fresh and exciting perspectives to this music. They emphasise the daring unconventionality of Tchaikovsky’s writing, while managing to tame its quasi-orchestral dimensions by employing the widest possible dynamic range with a particularly appealing velvety sound in the quietest passages. In the opening movements of the Second and Third Quartets, the Danels are bold and forthright in projecting the unstable chromatic harmonies and complex textures, and their delineation of those toe-tapping rustic ostinato patterns in the scherzos and finales in all these works has a compelling percussive edge that in places anticipates Stravinsky.

Tchaikovsky’s more lyrical aspects are not overlooked, and the Danels bring warm-hearted simplicity to the First Quartet's famous Andante Cantabile, and offer noble repose rather than indulgent emotionalism in the grief-laden Andante funebre e doloroso of the Third. Perhaps the Borodin Quartet (on Chandos or Melodiya) tug more at the heart strings here, but their slower tempo ignores Tchaikovsky’s marking of ‘ma con moto’.

The Souvenir de Florence also receives an exhilarating account, though in the work’s more frenzied passages the rather strident sound of the first violin in its highest register can sound rather grating compared to the sweetness achieved by the Borodin Quartet’s leader. Erik Levi PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★