The Quatuor Danel plays all of this music magnificently. It’s particularly impressive to hear how first violin Marc Danel sustains passages of savage intensity without any sacrifice in tonal beauty. I’m thinking particularly of the second movements of the Eighth and Tenth Quartets, as well as the more heavily scored passages in Nos. 2-4. Indeed, the ensemble playing throughout is exemplary, as precise as the Emersons (on DG) but warmer and more rhythmically flexible. This gives the angular melodies in the last three works (Nos. 13-15) a more human face and paints each quartet on a broader emotional canvas. In short, these performances stand with the very finest, and the only quibble I have about this set is the group’s all-too-common habit of marking entrances with heavy breathing, captured with distracting clarity by the microphones. If this doesn’t bother you, then by all means get these performances and enjoy. I certainly look forward to hearing more from the Quatuor Danel, sans the bronchial counterpoint. [5/22/2006]
