BARTOK

String Quartets — No 1, Sz40; No 2, Sz67; No 3, Sz85; No 4, Sz91; No 5, Sz102;

No 6, Sz114

Vertavo Quartet (Bent Vaernes Cardas, Oyvor Voile vns Henninge Bknes Landaas on Bjorg Vaernes ye) Simax 0 PSC1197 (155 minutes: DDD) 'Ka* strike a ersilqud tonal beauty and I

Selected comparisons:

Emerson Qt (12/88) (DG) 423 657-2GH2 regh Qt (411171) V4809

Thinks Qt (4/98) (DECC) 455 297-2DM2 "Millard Qt — 7950 (4/02) (RETR) RET 005 "Millard Qt —1963 (4/02) (PEAR) GEMS 0147

Plenty of spontaneous involvement offset by occasional confusion. Try before you buy

SYMAX Last month I commented on how the 1950 Juilliard Quartet's BartOk recordings were 'occasionally fazed by certain rhythmic complexities'. Had this new set by the enthusiastic but rather slapdash

Vertavo Quartet been to hand for comparison, I doubt that the Juilliard's few slips would have even occurred to me. Or maybe, on the contrary, readily available perfection has made me hyper critical of these performances.

According to a recently published interview, the 18-year-old Vertavo Quartet have been playing Bartdk for some 15 years. Certainly their relish of the music is evident from their eager, even rhapsodic, handling of the First and Sixth Quartets. But initial reservations set in with the First Quartet, with laboured ritenutos at 332" into the second movement impeding forward momentum. The tone isn't especially pleasant either, unlike the quartet's start of the Third Quartet, which is unexpectedly — and refreshingly — expressive. But at the beginning of the Third Quartet's 3/8 coda it is difficult to decipher what should be the music's very precise rhythmic profile. Other passages sound disappointingly out of kilter. At 117" into the Fourth Quartet's fifth movement, for example, the players sound decidedly confused. Key passages in the Fifth Quartet (muddled articulation at 020" into the Scherzo and miscalculated repeated notes 106" into the Andante) are poorly done. And if you beam up 138" into the first movement of the Sixth Quartet, then turn to any of my listed alternatives, you may well wonder (as I did) why someone didn't insist on a re-take. Had the competition been less keen, or had this recording been of a live concert, then these and other similar shortcomings might have been tolerable. But BartOk's quartets demand taut ensemble and precision. `Freedom' is all well and good if it's of the kind that the Vegh Quartet have on offer, where coordination, riming and rhythm are rarely, if ever, compromised. But here, a sense of awkwardness tends to put you on your guard. A shame because, as I've suggested, the spirit is often right and there are some lovely moments, especially in the first two quartets. Still, the Takics, Vegh and Juilliard sets are a far safer bet.

Rob Cowan