The Weller Quartet was formed in 1958 and in the following year took first prize at the Munich International String Quartet Competition. All the quartet’s members were from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra: Walter Weller, Alfred Staar, Helmut Weis, and Ludwig Beinl, and in the group’s final years cellist Beinl was replaced by Robert Scheiwein. In 1961 Walter Weller became leader of the Philharmonic and, of course, has subsequently developed a career as a conductor. The Weller Quartet disbanded in 1971.

Decca’s presentation includes the original LP catalog numbers (all prefixed with the magical SXL) and the CDs, for the most part, match the original LPs’ couplings; in addition to the works listed above are slight if pleasant pieces by Dittersdorf and Vanhal as well as further quartets, albeit “shavings,” from Haydn and Mozart.

Among the highlights are Brahms’s first two quartets, here less bloated and impenetrable than can be the case—I am not necessarily comparing the Weller to the Busch, but it’s these two groups that have found most in this music in my experience. And there is also an elegant traversal of the six string quartets forming Haydn’s op. 33 (which were recorded in London in February 1965 and issued on two LPs, SXL 6182 and SXL 6183). The Weller’s playing is full of charm and lightness of touch, but never an easiness that overlooks Haydn’s remarkable powers of invention. There is something enjoyably en rapport between the cultured Weller Quartet and the genius of Haydn; and the Viennese line is continued with Mozart and Schubert, two of the former’s “Prussian” quartets played with just the right instinct, and Schubert’s String Quintet, with Dietfried Gürtler as second cellist, which is similarly without applied mechanics, the music speaking for itself, and steered and expressed with innate feeling, the first movement urgent and falling naturally into reverie, the famous Adagio generously spacious.

Unfortunately, though, the recording places the group and guest cellist a little too distantly and with too much ambience; however, the Weller’s buoyant sense of rhythm is not compromised. Elsewhere, the sound is intimate and tangible, whether recorded in London (Haydn’s op. 33) or in the Sofiensaal, Vienna. I wouldn’t mind betting, though, that those with the SXLs (which I have never possessed or even heard) could well be enjoying sonic qualities even more mellifluous than on these CDs, which on their own terms offer perfectly acceptable results, save the occasional suspicion of over processing.

Berg’s single Quartet is made lucid and romantic, and the Shostakovich is rendered with great sensitivity and sympathy, if not the earthiest of timbres but certainly with virtuosity and unanimity. The three Beethoven quartets are all done with seriousness and respect, if not the deepest of searching, although op. 127 is distinctive in its gravitas ; the aura that this music is something special to the musicians is palpable.

The polish and sweet tone of the Weller Quartet, the musicians’ very specific response and integration, the group’s geographical locus and tradition, and its core and old-world values make this a set to treasure.

FANFARE: Colin Anderson