Judging from this Schubert release, the Fitzwilliam String Quartet has become infected with period instrument disease. It’s one thing to project the outsize dynamic contrasts and slashing accents and spooky tremolos through the G major quartet’s first two movements, but why such timbral stridency in loud tuttis or such threadbare, puny tone quality in soft solo passages? The repeated notes in the Scherzo’s main motive sound enervated and undifferentiated compared to the shapely urgency we hear from most other ensembles.
The Allegro assai finale is a behemoth of a tarantella that comes off best when performers stress incisive rhythms and textural transparency, exemplified by the Ma/Kremer/Kashkashian/Phillips group (Sony), or the lean and exciting Hagen Quartett (DG). By contrast, the Fitzwilliam’s heavy and foursquare playing leaves a tedious impression.
Most ensembles who record the D. 703’s incomplete second movement play the fragment as is, while the Fitzwilliams opt for Brian Newbould’s stylistically plausible completion. The familiar complete “Quartettsatz” movement features both formidable, hard hitting ensemble synchronicity and relatively mousy, tonally wan solo passages. Collectors who rightly treasure the Fitzwilliam Quartet’s Decca Shostakovich cycle, Franck Quartet, and Beethoven Op. 132 should approach this release with trepidation. The reverberant sonics have a presence and force that arguably overpowers the music.