String Quartet in B flat, Op.76 No.4 - Haydn
String Quartet No.3 - Bartok
Quartet in C minor, Op.51 No.1 - Brahms
The Auer String Quartet won the London International String Quartet competition in 1997. The players, all Hungarian, bring to their performances a fiery intensity and full-blooded tone that almost stretches the limits of chamber music. Haydn's Op.76 No.4, know as the Sunrise, was no bland evocation of the picturesque but an energetic image of the sun dancing, as it is said to do on occasion. The spirit of the dance informed each movement, even the Adagio, and the sophistication of the construction was carried by a simple directness, as if a traditional band had invented the music for themselves.
The far from naive enthusiasm of the Auer Quartet made the dissonances of Bartok's No.3 seem the most natural language for music. What private turbulence motivated the extraordinary violence of expression used by the composer is not clear, but the players left no doubt of its possibly malefic power. The moments of tenderness were, by contrast, all the more effective in their suggestion of another aspect of the human psyche.
Brahms's first String Quartet inhabits a totally different world, if an equally intense one. He did not wear his heart upon his sleeve for daws to peck at, but there is no mistaking the emotional turmoil beneath the flowing melodies. The dance-like episode in the third movement is a rare relaxation. The Auer Quartet were as fervent in Brahms as in Bartok, making its richness of sound even richer, and as far removed from asceticism as possible. Their style of playing is inclusive enough to be able to match the demands of such different styles of music.
