The Cutting Edge

DAN DAVISMendelssohn: Complete String Quartets.Pacifica Quartet. Judith Sherman, producer.Cedille 90000082 (three CDs).Vivaldi: Bajazet. Soloists, Fabio Biondi,conductor. Nicolas Barthelomée, producer.Virgin 45676.Geza Anda: Troubadour of the Piano.Various Works. DG Original Masters4775289 (five CDs).The Mendelssohn String Quartetsare getting more attention thesedays. There are seven, plus an eighthcobbled together from four separatemovements, and they’re among thefinest examples of post-Beethovenstring quartets of the nineteenth century.Recent sets by the Talich and theEmerson Quartets seemed to makeany new one superfluous, but this collectionby a less-well-knownAmerican foursome is at least as goodas the Talich, while the Pacifica’swarmer, more varied tonal resourcesmake it superior to the acclaimedEmersons. First violinist SiminGanatra leads with verve, her stunningsolos a perfect component of anensemble sound that gives inner andlower voices their due. The Pacificaadds to its timbral appeal an abundantenergy and the Old World virtue ofhumane musicality. Listening to theseworks, you feel the players love andunderstand them, and they make youdo so, too. They’re also alive to the differencesamong the Quartets, so thatthe earliest of the group, written whenMendelssohn was 14, is appropriatelygiven Haydnesque proportions while thelarger-scaled works get the right blendof gravity and drive. Scherzos zip alongwith air-borne finesse; slow movementsare soulful without dragging. The soundis first-class, well balanced with a transparencythat reveals details in a naturalmanner that contributes to the “you arethere” perspective. A wonderful threefor-twobargain.This selection stands for one of thegreat discoveries of the CD era, therevival of Vivaldi’s operatic output,pioneered by labels like Opus 111and Virgin. The plot of Bajazet pitsthe eponymous sultan against thedespot Tamerlane, and features a bevyof complications and twists. Thisopera is really about singing, one lusciousaria following on the footstepsof another, virtually all qualityexamples of virtuoso Baroquesinging. Sample mezzo VivecaGeneaux’s “Quel guerriero in campoarmato,” bristling with dazzling coloraturaruns that leave you, but nother, gasping for breath. The rest ofthe cast is nothing less than fabulous.David Daniels, the Tamerlano,made me forget my aversion to countertenors,and the other principalsare also terrific, affecting in the contemplativearias, brilliant in theextroverted ones. Don’t be put offbecause the opera is a pastiche;Vivaldi cobbled it together usingarias from leading composers of theday along with his own, a commonpractice of the time. Kudos to FabioBiondi, who guided this project andadded a few other Vivaldi arias to fillholes in the score. Biondi leads ascintillating performance, and hisperiod instrument band, EuropaGalante, plays with a drive and burnishedtone few such groups canmatch. Add engineering as vibrantas the performance, and you get anexperience that shouldn’t be missed.Anda was one of the top pianists of the1950s and ’60s, renowned for hisMozart, Schumann, and definitiveBartók interpretations. The album’stitle comes from a Furtwängler descriptionof Anda’s playing and is confirmedby these discs, crammed with keyboardartistry ranging from the noble, largescaleBrahms Second Piano Concertowith Fricsay to virtuoso turns inSchumann, for whom Anda had anaffinity and whose music comprisesabout a third of this five-disc budgetpricedset. The Schumann’s are superblydone and include first-rate interpretationsof masterpieces like the Fantasy,Kreisleriana, and more, including a fineConcerto with Kubelik and two versions,from 1943 and 1963, of theSymphonic Etudes. There’s also aChopin disc with some nice moments,along with excellent Liszt and Bartók.But my favorite disc is shared byBeethoven’s Diabelli Variations, a verypersonal reading that finds often overlookeddetails and humor, andSchubert’s great last Sonata, a compellinginterpretation different in shapeand detail from what we’re used tohearing, with a flowing first movement,wide dynamic range, and flexibletempos. Almost everything is in stereo,the mono items from the war years eminentlylistenable—remarkably fresh inthe 1943 Schumann SymphonicEtudes, beautifully played but cottonwrappedin Franck’s SymphonicVariations. This is one of the best ofUniversal’s Original Masters series.126 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ FEBRUARY 2006