Bartók
Complete String Quartets
The Heath Quartet
Harmonia Mundi HMM90766162 (2CD)
“It is, as a cycle, an amazing span.with Bartók, the evolution between the quartets and also the contrast and the way that you get immersed in this world, it makes for such a satisfying experience.” Oliver Heath
Heath’s Bartók proves to be truly Béla
Performances of Bartók’s six quartets have tended to fall into two camps; the hard-edged modernist, exemplified by the Emerson Quartet’s 1989 recording, or the soft-grained folkloric from Eastern Europe, for which the Takács is famed. This latest recording falls not in the middle but somewhere on a tangent and could well be the ideal library reference.
The Heath Quartet’s cool, limpid sound and crystalline clarity elucidates Bartók’s contrapuntal argument while their modern vibrato-lite style, impeccable intonation and precise chord voicing makes sense of his unconventional harmonic language. Rhythms are taut as a drum but not overdriven,...
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