Before recordings and radio were invented, the piano represented one’s home entertainment center. If you wanted to hear a Beethoven string quartet, you had to seek out a live quartet performance, or you could simply play the piece on the piano, usually in an arrangement for one piano four hands. Thousands of these arrangements existed, although few remain in print. In 1980 Dover reprinted the Hugo Ulrich and Robert Wittmann Beethoven Quartet transcriptions. They are skillfully wrought for the piano, yet manage to retain the flavor of Beethoven’s original timbres in regard to textural transparency and voice leading, losing nothing in translation from strings to keyboard. What is more, they are rewarding to play and to hear, which is not always the case with four-hand arrangements.
Stephanie Ho and Saar Arhuvia began investigating the four-hand Beethoven quartets at the suggestion of their teacher Leon Fleisher, who encouraged his students to probe Beethoven beyond the iconic 32 solo piano sonatas. Aside from their impeccably calibrated ensemble work on all levels, Ho and Arhuvia bring a mindful, chamber-like aesthetic to these scores in terms of motivic interplay, balances, and dynamic scaling. Tempos for faster movements never exceed what strings can do comfortably; if anything, they tend to fall on the conservative side. Yet this allows for the Op. 18 No. 6 Scherzo’s cross-rhythmic phrases to settle and breathe over the bar lines, and the Op. 18 No. 4 Scherzoso quasi allegretto’s alternating staccato and sforzando markings to effectively register. On the other hand, most quartets can handle Op. 18 No. 1’s Allegro finale at a brighter, more incisive clip. By contrast, the Op. 18 No. 1 and 6 Adagios benefit not only from the duo’s vibrant pace but also the uniformity with which long lines pass back and forth between the pianists. Aside from a tinge of stridency in the loudest passages, the duo’s refined and intelligent interpretations are well recorded.
