Search - Bela Bartok, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra :: Bartók: String Quartets 1 - 6/Divertimento

It must be the Hungarian thing....

Howard G. Brown | New York, NY | 02/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This set, like the Vegh and Takacs recordings, is quite extraordinary. I have copies of all three; something about these Hungarian ensembles makes this music live and breath for me. Obviously, they are completely at home in Bartok's evolving idiom, which, over the course of decades, remaines rooted in Hungarian folk music and speech patterns.Here, the Tatrai give intense, lyrical performances (the lyricism of the 2nd Quartet -- the singing through rich, dicordant textures -- stands out in particular) that seem a natural step away from their highly regarded Haydn recordings. The inclusion of a fine performance of the Divertimento -- composed just before the 6th Quartet -- is a welcome bonus on this 3-disk set. The recordings date from 1966 (quartets) and 1964 (Divertimento, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra led by Vilmos Tatrai), and they sound very good, though dry compared with the excellent Takacs recording, which is justly regarded as one of the finest chamber music recordings yet made.Among the three I would recommend Takacs for those getting to know the music and wanting a 'best' recording -- performance, sound, the whole ball of wax. Otherwise, one can't go wrong with any of these (the Vegh set being a personal favorite), and the inclusion of the Divertimento makes this Tatrai recording a very attractive choice."