BRAHMS: String Quartet No. 1 in c, Op. 51; DEBUSSY: String Quartet in g, Op. 10 – Ceruti Quartet – MSR Classics MS1424, 61:22 [Distr. by Albany] ***1/2:
This is an odd coupling; usually the Debussy is paired with you-know-who and Brahms with another of his quartets. Hearing them back-to-back is instructive if not enlightening. While both quartets represent the first efforts of each composer—Debussy at 30 and Brahms at 40—only the Debussy can claim truly legendary status. In fact, though the composer was haunted by Beethoven-angst early in his career, and the lukewarm reception inclined him to not try it a second time even though he had planned to, it is his quartet that etched its way into the public consciousness as opposed to the Brahms, and it is clear that Brahms’s work is by far inferior to the Impressionist composer.
Before I get a lot of email about that last statement let me assure everyone that I love the Brahms quartets—it’s just that I do not believe they are his strongest chamber music efforts, and his own intimidation by the great Bonn master was well deserved. Brahms’s quartets—none of them—are in the league of any of Beethoven’s sixteen. But Brahms can hardly be criticized when considering his work as a whole, one of the best efforts of the Romantic era. Debussy’s seminal piece, with one foot still in the classical era and another in the future haze of Impressionism, was audacious and masterly; and despite the initial hesitation it did not take long for it to establish itself.
So the comparison favors Debussy—but in this instance the performances favor Brahms, which I found much more persuasive. The Ceruti Quartet has a basically soft sound, favoring execution and color to big and aggressive statements, and in this case Brahms responds well to this. His last quartet would not. Debussy ironically, needs a rather aggressive tone, far more so than the later Ravel would command. The Ceruti plays it well—no technical issues at all—but lacks the temperament to fashion a fully competitive reading, especially in a work that has been recorded as often as the Debussy has, with so many legendary issues.
The sound is rather narrow but exceptionally focused, and like so many MSR recordings, resembles a high quality analog production. For many this is the greatest selling point.
—Steven Ritter
