Guarneri Quartet - The Hungarian Album: Zoltan Kodaly & Erno Dohnanyi (2009)

The Guarneri Quartet, one of the longest-standing, most respected string quartets in modern times, released this 2009 album -- entitled The Hungarian Album -- in the same year as its departure from the world's stage. Apart from a long and storied history, and the musical luminaries with whom the group has collaborated, one of the most notable achievements of the Guarneri is membership retention, having switched out only one member (cellist David Soyer being replaced with Peter Wiley) since the group's founding in 1964. This type of long-standing collaboration results in a nearly universally reliable aspect of performance: unity of vision and seamless communication. This same level of personal connection is evident on the disc. The three quartets heard here were recorded several years prior to its release, but the effects of time on the ensemble's technical acumen are evident. While the deep musical introspection and profound interpretive abilities remain intact, intonation is often a struggle in these three challenging and rarely heard quartets of Ernö Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály. Longtime fans of the quartet will certainly be able to overlook this deterioration in the Guarneri's abilities, but newcomers to the ensemble may find the frequent nebulousness of a pitch center rather off-putting. Apart from this, however, the Guarneri Quartet delivers a stunningly rich Hungarian sound, filled with intensity and relentlessness one moment only to be followed with eerie stillness and elegance the next. The Hungarian Album may not be the swan song disc the Guarneri was hoping for, but it still represents a valuable and worthwhile addition to the recorded legacy of this venerable chamber music ensemble.