Mozart: String Duos, Trios, & Quintets

[snyprrr]

Could you recommend me something, perhaps a little fruity? I'm not up for too much research here, so I give it to you!

[DavidW]

If you like PI, this is superb:

[asin]B001VLGMFO[/asin]

For a more traditional performance try [asin]B0000040VP[/asin]

[snyprrr]

If you like PI, this is superb:

[asin]B001VLGMFO[/asin]

For a more traditional performance try [asin]B0000040VP[/asin]

Mmm,... I see you have the Festetics there. I'm just a hair reluctant with them (see 'Haydn String Quartets' Thread!). Ha, some will be laughing, I'm sure.

Do you know any oooother HIPsters?

[Scarpia]

This one is so good I never felt the need to look farther.

[asin]B00004WMX7[/asin]

[DavidW]

This one is so good I never felt the need to look farther.
[asin]http://B00004WMX7[/asin]

Oh boy looks like another PI recording, splendid!

[snyprrr]

This one is so good I never felt the need to look farther.

[asin]B00004WMX7[/asin]

Drool Control!

[Mandryka]

There's a fine recording of K493 with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.

AMB was engaged as floating artist-aboard ship for a Mediterranean cruise, unlikely as that sounds. Isaac Stern and friends were also on board. They proposed playing chamber music with Ciro. After one rehearsal, Michelangeli went to the cruise director and said, "I don't play with gypsies." "Oh, ah, who, DO you play with?" "I have some friends in Paris." "We'll bring them here and cast Stern and his group adrift in a lifeboat. Will that be satisfactory?" Hmmph!"

Michelangeli's friends were brought on and disappeared with him into the bowels of the ship, not to emerge until after intensive rehearsals three days later to play Mozart's piano quartet in E-flat for the delectation of passengers and crew. Thus are great records born. If Stern commented, I haven't seen it..

It's a good story and the CD, on Ermitage, is certainly worth checking out.  But truth is, if pressed to only keep one recording of these quartets  it would be the one with Dezso Ranki at the piano.

[Que]

Oh boy looks like another PI recording, splendid!

And here is another, a brand new issue.  Though I'm fully satisfied with the Festetics & Badura-Skoda recording, the line up on the new disc is as impressive.



Q

[Que]

À propos, some more HIPpies.

The Mozartean Players is very nice indeed and will undoubtedly have pleased many for years, but is upstaged by the Festetics in character IMO. The lonely two-star review on Amazon US complaing about the period instruments is truly heart warming . The average Amazon reviewer: "I'm complaining because: 1) it is a historical recording 2) it is a period instruments recording 3) I have no idea what I'm talking about, but who cares!?" [end of rage ]

I haven't heard the other two recordings pictured.



Q

[Peregrine]

But truth is, if pressed to only keep one recording of these quartets  it would be the one with Dezso Ranki at the piano.

Bingo! That's the one, and cheap as chips...

[DavidW]

Yeah that review was pretty funny Q!

[snyprrr]

À propos, some more HIPpies.

The Mozartean Players is very nice indeed and will undoubtedly have pleased many for years, but is upstaged by the Festetics in character IMO. The lonely two-star review on Amazon US complaing about the period instruments is truly heart warming . The average Amazon reviewer: "I'm complaining because: 1) it is a historical recording 2) it is a period instruments recording 3) I have no idea what I'm talking about, but who cares!?" [end of rage ]

I haven't heard the other two recordings pictured.



Q

The Bilson is the one I remember seeing.

[val]

The best version of both Quartets is, to me, the one of Horszowski and members of the Budapest Quartet.

Regarding the first Quartet K 478 (my favorite) Schnabel and the Quarteto Pro Arte recorded one of the most beautiful discs ever. This version has a life, a poetry, a magic beauty in the dialog of the several instruments that I will never forget.

Compared to this, the versions of Curzon/Amadeus and Rubinstein/Guarneri seem just routine.

[Herman]

There's a fine recording of K493 with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.

AMB was engaged as floating artist-aboard ship for a Mediterranean cruise, unlikely as that sounds. Isaac Stern and friends were also on board. They proposed playing chamber music with Ciro. After one rehearsal, Michelangeli went to the cruise director and said, "I don't play with gypsies." "Oh, ah, who, DO you play with?" "I have some friends in Paris." "We'll bring them here and cast Stern and his group adrift in a lifeboat. Will that be satisfactory?" Hmmph!"

It is sincerily to be hoped this story is not authentic.

[snyprrr]

But truth is, if pressed to only keep one recording of these quartets  it would be the one with Dezso Ranki at the piano.

Waiting for the mailman now!

[snyprrr]

And here is another, a brand new issue.  Though I'm fully satisfied with the Festetics & Badura-Skoda recording, the line up on the new disc is as impressive.



Q

I've changed the Thread Title to include the PTs. I just got the EMI DoubleForte issue with... is it the London Schubert Trio?, or something like that... and, I've never to my knowledge heard the Music, but, I must say, 'whoever' that Mozart fellow is, he/them wrote some really winning PTs!! Instantaneous Top Listers! Lots of bubbly, perfect background music, with some real great effects.

Do you know anything about this cd? The notes say nothing about the group. I was expecting an old recording, but it's from 1990, and appears to be wholly or partially 'live' recording that sounds pretty good to me, with a performance that my Virgin Ears can't criticize. I've heard that these pieces aren't the deepest Mozart. Oh well.

[Herman]

Instantaneous Top Listers! Lots of bubbly, perfect background music, with some real great effects.

Mozart may have composed some music, especially in his early years, that may be relegated to the background, but the Piano Trios and Quartets certainly do not belong to that category. It's very dramatic music, best heard in concert, so as to be more attuned to the musical drama, and if you want to enjoy the music at home, you should listen to carefully to hear what's happening.

[Valentino]

Not PI by instrument sound. Modern. Superbly strong playing. I love this disc.

[Herman]

Not PI by instrument sound. Modern. Superbly strong playing. I love this disc.

Superbly video-taped performances of both Mozart Quartets by the Fauré Quartett are on youtube

[snyprrr]

relegated to the background, but the Piano Trios and Quartets certainly do not belong to that category.

You know I didn't mean it!

the one with Dezso Ranki at the piano.

I just heard this for the first time, and, basically, the pieces themselves (though, I know I've heard the Finale of No.1 in  some movie/TV). I had a very different, more 'serious', reaction to this music, versus the SuperBubbles of the PTs which I heard at the first the other day. This will make for exciting back-and-forth.

Of course, I do especially like the Opening of the g-minor. Gurn, this may be the piece I was looking for back when we were having that Classical/Romantic talk. I didn't know that the PQ4T 'genre'(is that right?) was basically a Shobert/Mozart Invention? Wait a minute, didn't Shobert and family all die from poison mushrooms?? Hmmm.

I was really surprised how, actually, Modern/20th Century (Innocent Neo-Classicism?) WAM sounds in his PTs and PQ4Ts. I must now Complete my survey with the String Duos/Trios/Quintets. But, these piano based works do 'feel' differently to me than the SQs. Maybe it's just a timbre thing?

Anyhow, the Ranki/Eder performance is... transparent,... that's the word I was looking for. Elegant. You can hear the high society,...verrry nice.