Hugo Wolf’s early, sprawling D minor Quartet has relatively few takers in the CD era. Yet ensembles that brave the barely-20-year-old composer’s unwieldy, difficult-to-balance textures and unrelenting expressive angst usually do so with open, non-judgmental arms. The latest incarnation of the Fine Arts Quartet impels the opening movement’s harmonic obstacle courses decisively and swiftly and sparks the Scherzo’s coiled lilt with snarling accents. These players don’t pitch the slow movement’s high, sustained, Lohengrin-like chords with either the Artis or the Auryn Quartet’s centered security, but compensate through their long-lined ardor and convincing tempo fluctuations that minimize the music’s rambling spots. For all the Auryn ensemble’s admirably refined balances and superior intonation in the Finale, the Fine Arts group makes more of the music’s unexpected rhythmic twists and turns, and elsewhere casts all caution by the wayside. Incidentally, the Fine Arts places the Scherzo after the first movement, while the Auryn plays it between the slow movement and the Finale.
A silver-toned, scampering rendition of Wolf’s witty and concise Italian Serenade makes a delightful encore. Warmly recommended, although collectors should note that the Auryns include Wolf’s less-interesting E-flat major Intermezzo for the sake of having all the composer’s string quartet music on one disc. Likewise for the Artis Quartet’s hard-to-find Wolf release on Accord. [1/10/2002]
