Well, you can’t say The Lindsays, as they like to be called these days, don’t have a distinctive sound. Whether it’s right for Haydn is another matter. I have enjoyed previous installments in the quartet’s ongoing Haydn cycle, but this latest issue struck me as perverse. The group seems to be focusing on matters of rhythm and accentuation to the exclusion of everything else, including cantabile, legato, tonal beauty, dynamic shading, intonation, and structural cohesion. All of the allegros sound the same: curt, gruff, with the note values cut short, often to the point where you’d be hard pressed to hear any tone at all. Right from the very opening of the G major quartet there are moments when all of the players, but particularly cellist Bernard Gregor-Smith, might as well be trying to play the music col legno (with the wood of the bow), so dry and cutting is the sound they produce.
Or take the opening of the Emperor Quartet: lots of detail, true, but don’t all of those sforzandos start to sound the same after a minute or so? And yes, it’s a good idea to take the second half repeat so as to be able to observe the second-time-only accelerando, but why play havoc with the dynamics along the way? This ruins Haydn’s carefully planned surprise, which depends for its full effect on everything else being identical up to that point. It’s the complete opposite of the freshness and spontaneity this music ought to express. The slow movements are full of little bumps and thumps (especially Op. 76 No. 1), as though an accent must always be forte, regardless of context. In fact, there’s precious little playing below a sturdy mezzo-forte anywhere in these three performances. While I certainly prefer personality and character to blandness, The Lindsay’s step over the line into caricature. They bury the music with their mannered, neurotic twitching and fidgeting. It’s unmusical, unidiomatic, and unpleasant to listen to, and the really up-close-and-personal recording only makes matters worse.
