This one’s a tough call. On one hand, the Verdi Quartet’s Verdi Quartet leaves a bitter aftertaste in every movement. The ensemble’s abrasive sonority seems totally wrong for music that depends on melodic shaping and singing tone to convey its salient points. Short note values are sometimes attacked in a manner that compromises clarity of pitch. Turn to the recent recording from the Melos Quartet on Harmonia Mundi, though, and you’re in another world. Beautiful tone, sensitive phrasing, wit, and charm: it’s all there. At the same time, the Verdians make the spooky, insect-like writing in the concluding Recitative and Passacaglia of Britten’s haunting Third Quartet sound appropriately astringent and choked. Similarly, the ensemble’s gaunt aggression underscores the intensity of the Ostinato and Burlesque movements. While I ultimately prefer the Maggini Quartet’s Naxos recording for its greater tonal allure and more supple response to Britten’s elegiac sentiments, the Verdians are clearly attuned to the music’s kinship with the late quartets of Shostakovich. Thomas Rabenschlag’s skillfully crafted and effective paraphrase on themes from Aida (Verdi’s, not Elton John’s!) inspires the Verdi Quartet to relax and let its sonority unfold like a rose that’s about to bloom. After hearing this, you wonder if other Verdi operas lend themselves to string quartet treatment.
