Complete Shostakovich Quartets
String Quartet No. 3 in F major, opus 73[a]; String Quartet No. 7 in F# minor, opus 108[b]; String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, opus 110[c].
Yggdrasil Quartet: Henrik Peterson (violin 1), Per Öman (violin 2), Robert Westlund (viola), Per Nyström (cello).
BIS BIS-CD-913. DDD. TT 70:27.
Recorded Sept. 1997[a,c]/May 1998[b], Länna Church, Sweden.

The current disc is the first in yet another projected complete cycle. This recording is much more flattering to the instruments than is Globe's, but although the Swedish Yggdrasil Quartet formed a year before the Rubio, their coordination in these pieces is not as precise in timing nor as well-judged as to balance.

The Yggdrasil's performance of the Third Quartet is symptomatic of the differences between their conception and the Rubio's. Their playing lacks the latter's fluidity. I don't, of course, mean to suggest that this is a flowing composition, with all of its sharp turns, stops and starts, but across those discontinuities one should be able to sense a direction of movement, and this is where the Rubio score over the Yggdrasil, most notably in the third movement, which is equally juddering in both accounts but not as driving in the Yggdrasil's. The Swedes are also more prone to exaggeration, with heavier application of rubato in the first movement. The expansiveness of their Adagio is marred by the awkwardness of their tempo changes, which seem contrived.

Things work better in the pithy Seventh Quartet, which crams so many varied ideas into such a short duration that the Yggdrasil's highlighting of effects and mood swings suits it well. The Lento central section is hypnotic, with a glissando guaranteed to chill the bravest blood. But while I admired the opening and concluding Allegrettos and the Lento, the Allegro sounded muddled; a less self-consciously pyrotechnical attack would have permitted greater vehemence.

As for the Eighth quartet, I found my reaction puzzling; it's a more technically-assured performance than the Rubio's, and unlike in the Third, the Yggdrasil players nudge the score only rarely and when it makes intrinsic good sense. Yet I found myself left unmoved by the performance, and found it difficult to put my finger on exactly what was wrong until the Seryozha refrain in the second Largo at Fig. 62/4:38; there is no heart in it - it is merely played, not sung. And this lack of emotional connection with the music is what is wrong with the quartet as a whole.

In short, I do not find the Yggdrasil to be sympathetic to the composer. Whereas the Rubio Quartet impart the wonder of discovering these works and their possibilities, the Yggdrasil Quartet seem to be more of the conquistador variety of explorer, too ready to impose their rule without regard to indigenous sensibilities.

W. Mark Roberts
Top