The second half of the Belcea Quartet’s Beethoven cycle, again mixing-and-matching quartets from all three periods, is a culmination of the modern era’s tendency to turn Beethoven from the voice of God into a highly-strung mortal, whose music is as skittish as a like-whatever teenager texting. Forget the played-in- blood, unified drama of the Jurassic-Era American recordings by the Yale and Guarneri Quartets, or the modern European classic from the Takács. The London-based Belceas, now nearing their 20th anniversary, are all about character-playing, revealing a big-personality Beethoven whose moods and emotions discharge on a hair-trigger.

These live performances from the Snape Maltings Hall in Aldeburgh are excellently-recorded and equally well-played, and it’s up to the listener to try to keep up with the caffeinated hyper-activity as each new musical impulse is animated with the energy of a game-show host. Some of it’s deeply felt, like the slow movement of the first Razoumovsky Quartet, for instance, but it never dwells there, as if settlement on a definitive point-of-view is impossible when there are still so many musical hyperlinks to click on.

The DNA of any complete Beethoven string quartet cycle, though, is contained in the epic slow movement of Op 132. So simple yet so profound, here its block chords and organ-like harmonies on its Lydian mode main theme are vibrato-free, sounding rather thinner than usual as a result. Meanwhile, its bittersweet contrasting passages seem less like the last will and testament of a tortured genius and more like Mendelssohn’s elfin scherzos tossed off with abandon.

In the end, responses to this undeniably clever, original and brave Beethoven cycle may be divided between the generations. Expect those who love it to utter the word “Cool.”

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