When it comes to transporting listeners on a memorable chamber music journey, you usually can count on the Alban Berg Quartet to provide a comfortable and classy ride. Its live Dvorák E-flat and A-flat quartets abound with stylish perception and sensitively-honed ensemble playing that manages to appease both the unforgiving, all-hearing microphones yet still connect with and soak up energy from the audience. In Op. 51’s outer movements, for instance, the musicians pass motives back and forth like grown-up, affectionate siblings who automatically finish each other’s sentences. They take Op. 105’s Molto Vivace directive on trust without ever sacrificing rhythmic control and beauty of tone, and bring irresistible drive to the work’s final pages. Although the poignant slow movement is gorgeously sustained, it lacks the melodic ripeness and harmonic tension generated in respective recordings by the Prazák and Panocha Quartets–recordings that also benefit from warmer, more intimate engineering. Still, the Alban Berg Quartet is at the top of its world-class form, and that’s saying a lot. A fine release, well worth the attention of anyone who loves these wonderful compositions.
