Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 59, No. 1 & Op. 130, Busch Quartet

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Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 59, No. 1 & Op. 130, Busch Quartet

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The performances are touchstones; the CBS transfers are excellent.

These rare recordings date from 1941-42, the sound is as warm and round and brilliant. If you have the superb Busch EMI set of Beethoven quartets + Schubert and Mendelssohn, you will want this, since Op.130 is not included in that set. Op.59/1 is an added bonus.

While there is no final word in how this music should be played, the Busch Quartet is preaching the Gospel Truth. This is "soul music."

The Busch Quartet were renowned interpreters of Brahms, Schubert and, above all, of Beethoven, During the 1930s they made a famous series of recordings which included most of these composers' major chamber works. The only late Beethoven quartet not recorded was the B Flat, Op. 130, which had already been done by the Budapest Quartet. This omission was put right in 1941 when the Busch Quartet made its first recordings for Columbia Records in America.

These recordings, with their remarkably silent surfaces, were the culmination of two decades of music making – and the last mementos of the classic Busch Quartet. In 1945 the quartet was disbanded, due to Doktor's illness and Andreasson's other commitments and the post-war Busch Quartet with its new second violinist and violist made relatively few recordings.

With the CBS LP issue in 1974 of this 1941 recording of the great B Flat quartet, British listeners had their first chance to hear one of the Busch Quartet's finest recorded interpretations. The original 78 rpm records were never issued (in Britain), presumably because of wartime restrictions.

Though all the members of the quartet were musicians of exceptional talent and profundity, the guiding spirit of the ensemble was Adolf Busch, a leader in the true spirit of the word. His remarkable violin tone runs through the quartet's recordings like a thread of gold – and the spirituality of his vision raises all his colleagues to new heights of inspiration.

A Busch performance had a quality compounded of tonal beauty, rhythmic subtlety, architectural unity – and a gentle sense of humour which informed everything he did. A sense of humour is an essential ingredient in interpreting Beethoven but it is surprising how often it is overlooked.

Busch never confused being serious with being solemn. He started with an attitude of complete fidelity to the score, but this was only the beginning. A Busch journey through the great Back solo violin chaconne, or the fugue of Beethoven's C Sharp Minor quartet, would become a search, a pilgrimage in which the music emerged as if it were being composed on the spot. He saw, with complete honesty and directness, right into the heart of Beethoven's musical intentions. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the B flat quartet, with its kaleidoscopic changes of mood ranging from the angry to the fantastical, from the humorous to the sublime.

Adolf Busch was not only a great interpreter, he was a great violinist. His haunting tone was completely individual, even in the early days when he played on instruments made by his father – from the 1920s he played a Stradivarius. In his prime he had a superb technique, with a fluent bowing arm and a left hand which found the exact note unerringly. He cultivated a singing legato which was as well founded on breath control as the tone of a great singer. He used the portamento of his time, but never excessively; his vibrato was always tastefully controlled. His whole art was one which did not draw attention to itself. Yet when he wanted to, he could emulate any of the more obviously charming players of his time. There is a 1930s recording of the Mozart Serenata Notturna with the Busch Chamber Players, in which Adolf Busch gives a perfect lesson in the Viennse style. His recordings of Bach and Handel, on the other hand, are object lessons in rhythmic vitality and still sound remarkably "modern" in style.

If Busch and his colleagues ever sound strained on their instruments, this is invariably because they are pushing themselves to the limit. The tempo is always chosen to suit the music, not the performers. The Busch Quartet had the courage to adopt – and sustain – a true adagio in Beethoven's slow movements, and to follow the composer's indications in fast movements to the letter. When quartet technique has advanced in so many ways since the war, it is surprising that so few modern groups are able to take Beethoven at his word.

Busch's influence can be heard in many spheres today – in the interpretations of such great ensembles as the Smetana Quartet and the Quartetto Italiano, in the proliferation of small orchestras and violinist-conductors, in the ideals and achievements of the Marlboro Festival.

Perhaps the greatest lesson he can teach us, however, is that music is not an escape from life – it is a part of life, reflecting life in all its diversity and demanding the same standards. Only one facet of life is missing from a Busch performance – dullness. Gramophone