There’s a bright, youthful spark to the Modigliani quartet’s playing – and I mean youthful in the best possible way. The interpretations are fresh, enthusiastic and ephemeral, with a liberating sense that these performances don’t need to be the last word on these pieces.
It turns out that the Parisian ensemble tackles Czech and Hungarian repertoire with the same up-for-it, boyish, slightly rough-hewn energy that made its previous recordings of Haydn or Ravel so lively. Fast passages in Dvořák’s American, Bartók’s Second and Dohnányi’s Third quartets are full of spontaneity and buoyancy, with a great conversational bravura between the players, plus an added refinement that I haven’t heard from them before.
The sound is mainly light and shiny – not rich enough for my liking in Bartók – but the litheness is invigorating, and there’s a stripped-back beauty in the slow movements that stopped me in my tracks. Try the stunning chorale that opens Dohnányi’s Andante to see what I mean.
