At their best, Brahms’ sextets can demonstrate why it is that playing or listening to chamber music can be as totally absorbing, overwhelming, and ultimately satisfying as an experience with the largest symphonic works. The music has great emotional immediacy; each tonal color is acute; each melody and harmony is finely etched. On this recording, the richness of the music is matched note for note by the players’ ardency. However, the Arcata Quartet’s obvious enthusiasm and vivacity, and that of the accompanying guest musicians, doesn’t mean that accuracy is abandoned in favor of fervor; quite the opposite, in fact. Every step is executed precisely and with great economy: you get the idea that absolutely every detail has been hashed out in rehearsal. (Just listen to the sinuous opening of the second sextet’s Scherzo as it carefully builds into a boisterous, full-bodied dance.) But don’t get the impression that the artists are automatons simply shooting out notes from the score. These players are clearly listening to each other quite carefully (an occurrence that is all too rare, even for such intimate ensembles). Their vigor and exuberance is what makes listening to this disc such a pleasure.
Dismayingly, the depth of these performances is betrayed by excessively dry sound. The players are miked much too closely, with no fullness at all. In some sort of misguided effort, the engineering places us dead center amid the players rather than at a comfortable distance in the audience. Music making of this quality deserves better.
