Vermeer Quartet - Béla Bartók: The Complete String Quartets (2005)

Posted By: ArlegZ

Date: March 31, 2024

One of the great recent versions of - arguably - the towering string quartets of the 20th century is by frequent Buffalo visitors the Vermeer Quartet. Three decades separate the composition of the first Bartok Quartet from the sixth and last. Not only is the stylistic diversity within them often much exaggerated but so too are the difficulties presented by the third quartet, which, for all its dissonance, is so structurally cohesive (it's the shortest at 15 minutes - half the length of the first, fifth and sixth) that it remains one of the most powerful works in the quartet repertoire.
What the much-traveled, much-recorded Vermeer Quartet brings to these quartets is irreplaceable, i.e., these four men are never flummoxed for a second by this music. You will never catch them, no matter how fiendishly demanding it gets, substituting sound for music. They never forget that the composer who, in revolutionary youth, pointedly (and theatrically) wore peasant boots, came of musical age as a contemporary of Strauss and Debussy. The result is a discipline and a suavity that elevates their Bartok cycle to a very high level.
–Jeff Simon

Performer:
Vermeer Quartet:
Shmuel Ashkenasi, violin
Mathias Tacke, violin
Richard Young, viola
Marc Johnson, cello

Tracklist:
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
CD1:
String Quartet No. 1, BB 52
01. I. Lento - attacca
02. II. Poco a poco accelerando - Allegretto
03. III. Introduzione - Allegro - attacca: - Allegro vivace
String Quartet No. 3, BB 93
04. I. Prima parte: Moderato - attacca
05. II. Seconda parte: Allegro - attacca
06. III. Ricapitulazione della prima parte: Moderato - Coda: Allegro molto
String Quartet No. 5, BB 110
07. I. Allegro
08. II. Adagio molto
09. III. Scherzo
10. IV. Andante
11. V. Finale: Allegro vivace
CD2:
String Quartet No. 2, BB 75
01. I. Moderato
02. II. Allegro molto capriccioso
03. III. Lento
String Quartet No. 4, BB 95
04. I. Allegro
05. II. Prestissimo, con sordino
06. III. Non troppo lento
07. IV. Allegretto pizzicato
08. V. Allegro molto
String Quartet No. 6, BB 119
09. I. Mesto - Più mosso, pesante - Vivace
10. II. Mesto - Marcia
11. III. Mesto - Burletta
12. IV. Mesto

EAC LOG1

Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 17. February 2024, 20:57

Vermeer Quartet / Bartók - The Complete String Quartets - CD1

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EAC LOG2

Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 17. February 2024, 21:34

Vermeer Quartet / Bartók - The Complete String Quartets - CD2

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Thanks to the original releaser

CD 01
CD 02