CHAMBER MUSIC EFFORTS PRODUCING A MIXED BAG

An unfortunate consequence of RCA’s virtual cessation of classical recording and CBS’ go-slow attitude toward the new compact-disc technology is the sparseness of sonically up-to-date representations of two of the world’s premiere chamber ensembles, the Guarneri and Juilliard quartets.

This when other labels--large and small--are finding it impossible to keep up with CD demand, indeed when nearly the whole of the industry is rejoicing in the seeming miracle wrought by CDs: the return of classical sales as a significant component of the record business.

Angel Records, whose dedication to the intimate art has been sporadic at best for the past quarter-century, has become an instant leader in the field with its support of the Alban Berg Quartet of Vienna, one of the new superstar ensembles.

The latest Berg-Angel collaboration is the traditional coupling of the string quartets of Debussy and Ravel (Angel DS-38193, LP; CDC 47347, CD) with the players in top form. Which is to say the music is projected with coolly brilliant tone and flawless ensemble, yet with all the intensity one could desire. Oft-recorded as the material may be, it is always welcome when played with such intelligence, energy and polish.

Things go awry at the outset in the Cleveland Quartet’s expendable release of the identical coupling (Telarc 80111, CD). Here, instead of the whiplash of Debussy’s opening measures, a passionate call to attention that determines the sound and shape of everything to come, we get mushy, unfocused tone and lack of rhythmic definition. Elsewhere, excessive portamento and vibrato further impede the progress of what are, ultimately, interpretations notable more for sentimentality than intensity. Another in a series of disappointing outings for an ensemble that a decade ago seemed destined to join the ranks of the world’s elite quartets.

Deutsche Grammophon is betting its chamber music money on the Melos Quartet of Stuttgart, to which has been given the responsibility for that label’s first digital Beethoven cycle. Issued to date are the six quartets of Opus 18 (DG 410 971, 3 records, LP or CD) and the five “Middle” Quartets with Beethoven’s charming quartet transcription of his own Piano Sonata in E, Opus 14, No. 1 (DG 415 342, 3 records, LP or CD).

These are attractive performances, superbly recorded--particularly in their CD formats. The Melos sound tends to be sweet and light, its dramatic instincts Classically contained rather than Romantically robust. It’s another way of playing the music and a most convincing one, particularly suited to the Opus 18 quartets, with their readily discernible roots in Haydn and Mozart. (Note: These are different and vastly superior performances from those recorded by a less mature Melos Quartet for the Pantheon label and still listed in the Schwann catalogue.)

The Borodin Quartet has been the Soviet Union’s chamber music standard-bearer for more than 30 years. That the players have not lost their touch is evident in the two string quartets by their namesake, Alexander Borodin (Chant du Monde/Harmonia Mundi 78793, CD). The rarely heard First Quartet has its considerable melodic attractions, chiefly as they relate to and are expanded in the popular Second Quartet. There have been several memorable recordings of the latter over the years, including one by the original Borodin Quartet, with Rotislav Dubinsky as first violinist, the predecessor of today’s leader, Mikhail Kopelman.

In its arching lyricism, sumptuousness ot tone and rhythmic animation, this latest version supersedes even that durable interpretation, and the Chant du Monde compact disc sound, from Soviet Melodiya originals, is gorgeously deep and rich.

And for something completely different, a new release from the California-based Kronos Quartet, which has gained a new-music cult following and the respect of the larger critical community with a repertory devoted exclusively to 20th-Century music, much of which it has commissioned.

The latest Kronos program is a characteristically wide-ranging, quirky affair (Nonesuch 979111, LP only). Its major components are the Quartet No. 8 by Peter Sculthorpe of Australia, a dark-hued, grippingly dramatic blending of Eastern (as in Oriental) and Western (as in Stravinsky) elements, and the equally compelling--and dark--folk music-inspired, theme and variations Quartet No. 3 by Aulis Sallinen of Finland.

The rest is given over to American trivia: the knotty Third Quartet of the ever-befuddling Conlon Nancarrow; “Company,” a collection of schmaltzy doodles by Philip Glass, and a gloss on the 1967 Jimi Hendrix song “Purple Haze,” in which the sound of the Hendrix electric guitars, replete with phony feedback, is obviated rather than reproduced in its ill-fitting arrangement for string quartet by Steve Riffkin.

Still, the Kronos plays everything with such commitment and technical skill that one is impelled to listen, whether the material be Sculthorpe’s substance or Riffkin’s nonsense.