Karl Weigl: String Quartets 1 & 5 / Artis Quartett Wien
One by one, the last century's musical casualties are still emerging. Some had been forgotten because of political persecution, others because their work missed the trend. Karl Weigl suffered on both counts. Driven out of Vienna by the Nazis in 1938, he ended up in America at a time when his sort of music was regarded as hopelessly passé. Yet Schoenberg, who had been an early admirer in his pre-atonal days, remained a staunch supporter in the 1940s. Weigl's emotional intensity may be Romantic, echoing Schubert and adumbrating Bartók, but his style had unique integrity. The first of these quartets is wonderfully assured for a 23-year-old, and offers 44 unbroken minutes of ravishing lyricism. The second--by a composer who was by this time also a celebrated professor of composition--is pared-down and power-packed. Both are immaculately played by this Viennese ensemble. This is a disc to treasure, for its graceful evocation of a civilization brutally rubbed out.--Michael Church