Brahms with the New Friends of Music Quartet

My last post featured the two Brahms piano quartets recorded by the New York Quartet, No. 1 and 3. For whatever reason, that ensemble did not record the second quartet, so I looked around for a suitable alternative. My own collection contains only well-known readings, but I did find a gem in the Internet Archive.

That jewel is the 1949 recording by the New Friends of Music Quartet, made for the small Allegro label. It's apparently the only disc made by the quartet, whose members were Hortense Monath, piano, Bronislav Gimpel, violin, Frank Brieff, viola, and Jascha Bernstein, cello.

Bronislav Gimpel, Jascha Bernstein

Hortense Monath, Frank Brieff

Monath (1904-56) was the program director and driving force behind the New Friends of Music, a New York concert society, until its demise in the mid-50s. She was quite a good pianist who had recorded with the Kolisch Quartet and the Trio Pasquier in the 1930s and who made a solo Mozart LP for Allegro.

Bronislav Gimpel (1911-79) was perhaps the best known instrumentalist in the group. He emigrated from Europe to the US in 1937, and soon became the concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was a conductor of the ABC radio orchestra at the time of this recording.

Violist Frank Brieff (1912-2005) became better known as a conductor, and was for many years with the New Haven Symphony. He was a member of the NBC Symphony when this recording was made.

I have not turned up much information on cellist Jascha Bernstein, but I do know that he emigrated to the US in 1940, was active in New York at the time of this recording, and much later made a few discs for the Musical Heritage Society.

The Piano Quartet in A is a large-scale work, both in length and emotional scope. It is not tragic like its successor, the Quartet in C minor. Indeed, it is sometimes considered Schubertian in its songfulness, although its scale and dramatic quality are entirely characteristic of its composer. This recording does it full justice. The sound in ambient stereo is well balanced and truthful.