Sibelius: Complete String Quartets
Out of Sibelius's four completed string quartets, only one dates from his mature mastery: the dark, intimate Op. 56 "Voces Intimae." By contrast, the A Minor and B-flat major reveal an assured surface style redolent of Dvorák and Tchaikovsky, but laced with original touches that foreshadow the Sibelius to come. The same cannot be said of the 19-year-old composer's well-crafted but derivative, Haydnesque E-flat Quartet. The Sibelius Academy Quartet recorded all four works in the 1980s for Finlandia, and the label eventually compiled these amply engineered, scrupulously prepared, and heartfelt performances for a 1992 double-disc release. Here they are again, but with the Sibelius Academy's "Voces Intimae" replaced by the New Helsinki Quartet's 1998 recording. By and large, the change is not for the better. To be certain, there's much to admire in the New Helsinki's leaner timbre, which imbues the music's contrapuntal give and take with an appropriately austere transparency, similar to the Melos Quartet's excellent version on Harmonia Mundi. At the same time, the Helsinki group's well-played yet essentially soft-grained Scherzo falls short of the Melos's and Sibelius Academy's characterful bite and nervous energy. All the same, listeners who wish to acquire Sibelius's quartet output at Finlandia's reduced two-for-one price won't be disappointed. But where does that leave the Sibelius Academy Quartet's superior "Voces Intimae"?--Jed Distler