Repudiating the standard charge against central European string quartets of too much gemutlichkeit, Vienna's Alban Berg Quartet stressed technical rigor and intellectual depth in its performances. For listeners tired of the emotionality and sentimentality, the Alban Berg Quartet's austerity was just the thing. But for listeners who longed for expressivity, the severity was anathema. Of course, like most generalizations, the charge that the Alban Berg Quartet was lacking in expressivity was not altogether true. Listen to its 1983 recording of Beethoven's Op. 130 String Quartet coupled with his Op. 133 Grosse Fuge. Certainly, the balances are exemplary: the voicing of the chords that start the opening Adagio ma non troppo have never been more precisely judged. Certainly, the tempos are ideal: the rhythms of the following Presto have never been more clearly articulated. Certainly, the counterpoint is just about perfect: the lines of the Grosse Fuge are entirely audible and absolutely apprehensible. But the heart of the performance, like the heart of any great performance of the Op. 130 Quartet, is the Cavatina, one of Beethoven's most compassionate and transcendent slow movements. While the Alban Berg Quartet's balance and tempo and counterpoint are all the acme of excellence, it is the group's interpretation that transfigures the performance. Without emotionality or sentimentality, it is the Alban Berg Quartet's expressivity, its ability to make each line sing and sigh and soar, that makes its performance one of the greatest ever recorded. EMI's late stereo sound is impeccable.
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