SCHUBERT String Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden.” JANÁČEK String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” • Amati Qrt • K & K 66 (62:46) Live: Baden-Württemberg 7/1999

This UNESCO-sponsored concert at the Maulbronn Monastery, a World Heritage Site, features the always-fiery Amati Quartet, and here I am surprised that they didn’t set fire to the place. While neither of these pieces can be considered definitive recordings, or even primary recordings, they are two of the most smoking readings I have ever heard in this music. It took me completely unawares when the dramatic opening bars of “Death and the Maiden” gripped me by the throat and threatened immediate life-extinction; I felt as if I were living the story myself, and though no maiden, I could certainly relate to her death-obsessed plight. This version is almost orchestral in feeling. While it is true that there is a huge amount of reverb in this space—well, it is a monastery—this only partially accounts for the destructive vehemence that the Amati gives this work. They see and saw their way as if it were the world’s last concert, or the devil himself was in the audience. I enjoyed it tremendously, though as I said, I could not be satisfied with such propulsive antics on a regular basis. For that I will continue to turn to the Juilliard Quartet on Sony and the Alban Berg on EMI. But, just as in the movies, we all like to get scared as hell once in a while, and this one did it for me.

So if once is good, twice is better? This must have been what the quartet was thinking when they finished up with Janáček’s “Intimate Letters” Second Quartet. The only problem is that these letters are far from intimate, more like being published on the front page of the New York Times! I can’t say that the entire effort is a failure, for the Amati is simply too good to suffer such and they have this uncanny ability to take risks that others avoid and somehow make it work, and so it is here. But all you have to do is listen to the Trávníček Quartet’s reading (once on Opus, now a pricey special on an old Discover disc along with the Ravel and the first Janáček, “Kreutzer Sonata”) to see what is missing. In a word, it’s subtlety. This work was inspired by the composer’s very intense and personal love for Kamila Stosslova, a married woman who was 38 years younger, to whom he wrote over 700 letters. This work does not follow the normal quartet conventions, and is at once strikingly literal in its unpretentious affections, while also being grounded in a turbulence that underlies the whole work. But without the tenderness, the turmoil dominates the entire work, and herein lies the failure in this noble and wonderfully executed effort. You can’t win them all, but it is still a lively and provocative take on this music. Use with caution as a supplement only, and strap yourself in first.

FANFARE: Steven E. Ritter