VILLA-LOBOS: Complete String Quartets – Latin American Quartet – Dorian DSL-90904 (6 CDs plus 1 DVD), 389:44 [Distr. by Naxos] *****:
Villa-Lobos composed his 17 string quartets between the years 1915 and 1957, a remarkable testament to a fecundity and inspiration that engulfed nearly his entire career and also demonstrates an unusual consistency in approach while offering much variety in the music itself. This composer, pegged for so long as a one-man-opus, his Bachianas brasileiras 5 (though rightfully it is a gorgeous piece that admits no apologies), actually exceeded 2000 works by the time he breathed his last, and there is much to be discovered in his catalog that any serious music lover would do well to consider.
To my shame I was familiar with only one of his quartets, No. 7, also considered to be perhaps his most complex and even best. I can honestly report that listening to this set has been a revelation for me, the type that I thought long gone in my lengthy listening career. Most of us who love classical music long for the moment when we can cherish a new and heartfelt discovery, the same kind as when we first hear Tchaikovsky for instance, and the older we get the fewer and further between those wonderful moments appear. But this one my friend, is such a time, and you would be foolish to let it bypass you.
These recordings were made by Dorian from 1995-2001, and the sound on each is spectacular, wide-ranging, and fluently consistent regardless of year. They were previously released individually, but this is the first time in a collected set. They have been moderately well-served on CD, complete cycles emerging from by the Danubius Quartet on Marco Polo (discontinued but available), as well as the Bessler-Reis Quartet on defunct label Kuarup, as well as a few issues by some miscellaneous quartets, including the Hollywood. Brilliant Classics also released this exact set, now also discontinued probably because of this release. The Latin American Quartet, rest assured, possesses an unchallenged mastery over these works, as communicative as any quartet I have ever heard, setting a standard that will last for many years.
In fact, it is easy—no, very easy—to name these pieces as every bit as good and important as the Bartok and Shostakovich Quartets, with the difference that Villa-Lobos was able to express his impressions of the twentieth century in a far more optimistic and holistic manner than either of the other two masters. I was able to listen to these works the first time nearly straight through, and they never got tiresome. On the contrary, I found myself looking forward to what the composer was going to create next. Now maybe part of this is because Dorian is presenting them as a mix and match from the early, middle, and late periods of his life on each disc, and this makes for a more ingratiating experience. But even so, I have no doubt that any order would be equally effective and enthralling. The sheer range of tone colors, rhythmic expressiveness, meter changes, lyric beauties, is all riveting. From the early folk-inspired No.1 to the Haydnesque classicism of the No. 15 to the polyrhythms and Brazilian motives of No. 7, there is as much diversity and invention as anyone could possibly wish for.
This then, is absolutely essential, maybe the most desired set of discs I will come across this year, and an unqualified must for anyone who considers him/herself more than a novice listener. The bonus DVD features interviews and a complete performance of Quartet No. 1.
— Steven Ritter
