Bennewitz Quartet: An Evening in Vienna 1784

The Strad Issue: November 2024

Description: A mythical Viennese meeting inspires a fascinating programme

Musicians: Bennewitz Quartet

Works: Works by Dittersdorf, Haydn, Mozart and Vaňhal

Catalogue number: SUPRAPHON SU4345-2

This CD’s title may mislead – much of its programme having been composed after 1784 – but it refers to the occasion when, reportedly, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Mozart and Vaňhal performed together at a party in the Austrian capital. With a generous playing time and the skipping of some repeats, the disc offers perceptive accounts of a quartet by each of these musicians, warmly captured with vivid detail and exemplary balance.

The Bennewitz Quartet’s captivating performances are well projected, sensitively phrased and abundant in contrasts of dynamic and mood, but these players’ brisk tempo for the opening movement of Haydn’s op.33 no.5 results in the sforzando indications being somewhat underplayed and the principal theme’s turn motif being being frequently clipped. That said, the quartet plays with commendable freedom and unanimity, notably in the ensuing Largo cantilena, captures the scherzo’s wit and rhythmic élan and deftly characterises the Allegretto’s variations.

Vaňhal and Dittersdorf’s quartets (op.33 no.2 in A major and no. 5 in E flat major respectively) particularly showcase leader Jakub Fišer’s neat, unfettered and often bravura contributions, but his colleagues also gain prominence, especially in the episodes of both works’ energetic rondo finales. The musicians combine to nurture the harmonic audacities of the opening Adagio of Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ Quartet, creating a suspenseful atmosphere, and give lithe, supple readings of the subsequent Allegro and exhilarating finale.

ROBIN STOWELL