Béla Bartók: The Six String Quartets. The Juilliard String Quartet: Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violins; Raphael Hillyer, viola; Arthur Winograd, cello. (Pearl GEMS 0147; 2 CDs)

Bartók’s six string quartets (1908-1939) are generally considered the greatest works in that medium since Beethoven. The Juilliard Quartet’s pioneering Columbia recordings of the Bartók cycle, the first on records, have been rare collector’s items. Prior to this new Pearl CD set, that cycle had never been reissued in any format since its initial release on three LPs in 1950.

The Bartók quartets have been closely associated with the Juilliard Quartet since the ensemble’s inception. The performers bring to this recording a unique combination of intellectual penetration, emotional expression, mesmerizing tone color and sonority, virtuoso command, rhythmic energy, and tensile strength, making these complex and profound masterworks uncommonly accessible.

The Juilliard Quartet went on to rerecord the Bartók cycle twice (with changes in personnel): in stereo in 1963 and in digital sound in 1981; incredibly, Sony waited 16 more years before issuing the digital recording on CD (Sony 63234). A 1996 Juilliard Quartet 50th anniversary release lets you hear three Bartók quartets (Sony 62705)—one from each cycle—including the 1950 version of Quartet No. 4.

The sound quality of Pearl’s transfers faithfully reflects that of the source LPs (although Sony’s reissue of the Fourth Quartet, derived from the original masters, has a significantly wider frequency range). The complete 1950 Juilliard cycle is something very special; if you are unfamiliar with the Bartók quartets, this is the set to choose. Thanks to Pearl for making it available.

LEONARD SLATKIN CONDUCTS
BERNSTEIN’S SYMPHONIES 1 & 2

Leonard Bernstein: Jeremiah (Sym­phony No. 1); The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2); Divertimento for Orchestra. Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano; James Tocco, piano. BBC Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor. (Chandos CHAN 9889)

Leonard Slatkin received his bachelor’s degree from Juilliard in 1967, studying orches tral conducting with Jean Morel. Slatkin last led the Juilliard Orchestra in the spring of 1999 in a gala including Itzhak Perlman and Audra McDonald. Formerly the music director of the St. Louis Symphony for 17 seasons, Slatkin has helmed the National Symphony of Washington since 1996. He also became chief conductor of the BBC Symphony in 2000, the orchestra heard in this new recording.

Slatkin has long been a persuasive interpreter of the music of Leonard Bernstein. Upon Bernstein’s death, the New York Philharmonic invited Slatkin to conduct Jeremiah at memorial concerts. When Slatkin was later asked by RCA to tape Jeremiah, however, he self-effacingly demurred and insisted that RCA reissue Bernstein’s own historic 1945 St. Louis Symphony recording instead.

Now Slatkin has finally recorded Bernstein’s first two symphonies: Jeremiah (1942) and The Age of Anxiety (1949), in his own right. The Age of Anxiety, with its passages of symphonically sublimated jazz, is a difficult work for European orchestras to perform idiomatically. Slatkin and the BBC Symphony have no such problem, aptly conveying its moods of introspection and exultation. Pianist James Tocco, who has recorded Bernstein’s complete piano music, plays his prominent part with the requisite velocity, panache, and swing. In Jeremiah, Michelle DeYoung sings the "Lamentation" poignantly. The performers are abetted by Chandos’s wonderfully involving and realistic recorded sound.

A year before his death, Bernstein confided to an interviewer that he wanted to be remembered not for his conducting but for his music. Others, he felt, could conduct magnificently, "but nobody, for better or worse, can write my music except me." Although the compositions of his final years—such as the Divertimento half-hidden on this CD (it is not even mentioned on the front cover)—are disappointingly thin, his first two symphonies are arguably his finest serious works. This recording demonstrates that Slatkin can conduct them as convincingly as their composer.

Mention this column at the Juilliard Bookstore to receive a 5-percent discount on this month’s featured recordings. (In-store purchases only.)

Michael Sherwin is marketing manager of the Juilliard Bookstore (bookstore.juilliard.edu). He has held Rockefeller and Fromm Foundation Fellowships in music criticism, and has written for High Fidelity and Musical America.