Divergent Paths

Album review

This release is the first in a projected series by the Telegraph Quartet devoted to the 20th century string quartet repertory and aiming "to display the works of composers with unique visions that also speak to the zeitgeist of their time, musically or beyond." Here, that aim results in quite a pair of works that, as the performers themselves note, have probably never been recorded together before. It is hard to think of a greater contrast than that offered by the elegant Ravel String Quartet in F major and the dense Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7, which takes the extremes of the Viennese pre-atonal style just about as far as they can go, even farther than the sextet Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4. Yet there are points of connection. Both works retain classical structure as an underlying layer, and both have elements of cyclic form. The project bodes well for the Telegraph's intention to offer programs that compare as well as contrast, but the album succeeds in itself, for the quartet gives convincing readings of two vastly different works. The Schoenberg quartet is a notoriously difficult piece, and even the players say that one has to be "stout-hearted" to listen to it. However, the group does as well as anyone else in leading the listener through the thickets. Sample the second movement, where the quartet beautifully handles the evolution from seemingly simple material into chromatic depths. This performance may well become a standard, and one looks forward to further releases in this vein from the group.
© James Manheim /TiVo