rugby52732 asked:

> In what ways are the Emerson Quartet performances "foreign" ?

I didn't speak about the Emerson Quartet, I never heard their Bartók
quartets. I said the Takács Quartet performs without any foreign
accent, but I prefer the Alban Berg Quartet in their Bartok quartets
for other reasons.

With "foreign accent" I wanted to designate when somebody speaks an
other language than his mother tongue, and when this can be heard. For
example, I speak English with a "foreign accent" (please tell me the
right word here).

The Hungarian language has some pecularities, and these pecularities
can be neatly heard in most of Hungarian composers' music, especially
in Bartók's. I don't want to say that you must be Hungarian for
correctly perform Hungarian music, but it's better when you know the
pecularities of the language. This happens naturally for the Takács
Quartet, and not completely for the Alban Berg Quartet (I don't speak
about the others).

If is not clear, please don't hesitate to ask me other questions.

Best, Pierre