Don’t underestimate Alexander Glazunov’s works for string quartet. True, he stuck to his Russian Romantic guns throughout his long career, and was anything but an innovator. Nor did he match Tchaikovsky’s emotional fervor and melodic genius. But that doesn’t matter if you simply take this composer on his own terms, as the members of the Utrecht String Quartet have done throughout their landmark Glazunov cycle for MDG, originally issued on five single discs and now bundled together. Their stylish and meticulous interpretations mirror Glazunov’s impeccable craftsmanship and total comfort with the idiom.
Given the Quartet No. 1’s unfettered Slavic sensibility, one can argue that the contrapuntal elements sound either grafted on or forced, yet the 16-year-old composer already was an assured master, as the buoyantly witty Scherzo alone attests. However, the composer’s nationalistic bent truly comes into full flower throughout the Quartet No. 3, especially in the Mazurka movement’s wide textural and expressive variety. The musicians characterize the tunefully delicate passages and hard-hitting tutti drones to perfection. And if you want exquisite chromatic writing akin to middle-period Fauré while avoiding Reger-ish sludge, look no further than No. 4’s Andante.
The Fifth Quartet Finale’s scampering figurations evoke the young Mendelssohn, and demand the utmost in suppleness and agility. In contrast to the relatively emphatic Shostakovich Quartet performance, the Utrecht Quartet members wield lighter and lither bow arms, replete with slight accelerations that point up the music’s underlying nervous energy. No. 3’s large-scale “Fête Slave” finale benefits from carefully gauged climaxes and intelligent pacing that minimizes the movement’s tendency to overstay its welcome. That said, I actually prefer Glazunov’s later transformation of the movement into a dazzlingly orchestrated symphonic poem.
Listeners will discover further musical and interpretive delights, such as the extended variation movements from the Suite Op. 35 and Quartet No. 6, the poignant final Seventh quartet, and the richly inventive String Quintet with two cellos. The latter’s pizzicato-dominated Scherzo receives a brisk and refined reading that nevertheless seems a bit slick and impersonal; the slower Naxos recording with the Fine Arts Quartet and cellist Nathaniel Rosen has a conversational warmth that’s more to my taste. But there’s no point in quibbling over what remains the reference Glazunov Quartet cycle, not to mention the excellent sonics, informative annotations, and MDG’s super-bargain asking price.
