Skampa Quartet - Mozart, Smetana, Shostakovich: String Quartets (2007)

Like so many upstart ensembles to come out of Eastern Europe, the Skampa Quartet found its beginnings while the members were students -- in this case, at the Prague Academy in 1989. Only four short years later, the group gave its debut performance at London's Wigmore Hall and became the hall's artists-in-residence for the following five years. Its captivating energy and rapport with audience is frequently cited among its strengths. Whether this particular performance represents an off night for the quartet, or whether the performance really loses something when not viewed live is anyone's guess, but this live 2006 recording does not live up to its Wigmore Hall accolades. Opening with the Mozart K. 575 Quartet -- one of the quartets Mozart composed for the cello-playing King of Prussia -- the recorded sound quality of the ensemble is at once an issue. Throughout the Mozart, and indeed most of the album, the quartet sounds distant and hazy, like trying to listen to a performance through a door. The extensive cello solos in the second and third movements are thin and veiled; intonation among the violins is inconsistent, particularly when playing in unison or octaves. A complete change in character occurs with Smetana's Second String Quartet, a work far less familiar to most listeners than the First Quartet. Aggression and ferocity can be found in all four movements, and while Skampa's energy certainly delivers on this agitated character, the sound quality remains somewhat superficial with an insufficient core to the sound. The program closes with Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet; here again, as the quartet's volume increases, the focus and tone diminish. The energy gets the better of the group and each of the work's three Largo movements is unpleasantly fast and hurried. Apart from true fans of this ensemble or collectors of the Wigmore Hall series, most listeners would be better off passing on this particular offering.