Artemis Quartet - Brahms: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 (2015) [Hi-Res]

This disc is dedicated to the memory of one of the people playing on it: viola player Friedemann Weigle, who died in July aged 53. He joined the Berlin-based Artemis Quartet in 2007. Brahms gives plenty of limelight to the viola and it’s impossible not to have one’s ear drawn constantly to Weigle’s glowing tone and richly lyrical playing (listen out in the Agitato movement of No 3). The lower strings come off rather better than the violins: a relatively recent change of personnel (Vineta Sareika took over as leader in 2012) suggests the ensemble, now with the additional task of finding a new violist, is in a period of flux. If that vulnerability is audible, these are nevertheless strong, moving performances.