Beethoven's String Quartets

[ajlee]

I have the Alban Berg Quartet set, but sorry...haven't really listened to it yet =P  I bought it b/c it got good reviews on CT.com and it was quite a bargain at the time.

[Holden]

I have the Alban Berg Quartet set, but sorry...haven't really listened to it yet =P  I bought it b/c it got good reviews on CT.com and it was quite a bargain at the time.

There are 2 Alban Berg sets appparently - the EMI studio version from about 1985 and a live set recorded 4 years later. Some think the 'live' is an improvement but I can't seem to find it. Any one else have an opinion?

[dirkronk]

I really don't know what to suggest regarding an integral set. I like the 1960s Juilliard in portions of their early and middle quartets, but not so much their late ones...IMO they simply don't come through on the Dankgesang movement of the op.132 and that's a deal killer for me. I have a real affection for the Bartok Quartet in the late quartets, which I've had on vinyl for ages, but only recently got them on CD doing most (not all) of the earlier ones and haven't evaluated those yet. Same goes for a cycle by the Talich, which is lying in a box waiting for me to listen to even the first CD (hey, got it used for a song a couple of months back). I know the Italians in the middle and some of the late ones (my copies on vinyl, natch) and they're really an incredible ensemble, beautiful to listen to; I'm just a bit concerned that as an entire cycle, especially if you listen a lot, the QI may start to come across as a bit sweet/bland/"the same" from one piece to the next. Not quite to the Tokyo SQ level of sweetness, but perhaps not quite as edgy as you'd like. Still, their level of finesse is impressive. Hmmm.

In any event, it's my opinion that anyone seriously listening to LvB quartets MUST get all the Busch Quartet performances (various labels, incomplete, alas, and all pre-WWII) they can find AND the wartime incomplete set by the Budapest (Sony, two 2-CD sets...note, NOT their later complete set), along with the late quartets of the Hollywood (which you have already). Nobody gets deeper into the music than the first two groups, and few get as pretty as the third. And these would give you pretty much the gamut of performing styles. But remember...just my opinion.


Good luck finding your favorite baseline set, Holden!

Dirk

[Herman]

For me this is supremely non quaint, non pastoral, non Viennese cafe, non Palm Court,  highly knowing music. Street wise urban music.

streetwise urban music? what a strange thing to say.

[dirkronk]

Same goes for a cycle by the Talich, which is lying in a box waiting for me to listen to even the first CD (hey, got it used for a song a couple of months back).

Oh, my. Time for me to up the dosage of my ginkgo biloba. My memory is beginning to slip. It's NOT the Talich...it's the Vegh on Valois who are waiting for me to listen.

Now...what was I doing?


Dirk

[George]

Oh, my. Time for me to up the dosage of my ginkgo biloba. My memory is beginning to slip. It's NOT the Talich...it's the Vegh on Valois who are waiting for me to listen.

Now...what was I doing?


Dirk

Dang! If you got the Vegh in waiting, I wonder what you've got in the tray. 

[Verena]

There are 2 Alban Berg sets appparently - the EMI studio version from about 1985 and a live set recorded 4 years later. Some think the 'live' is an improvement but I can't seem to find it. Any one else have an opinion?

I have listened to the studio version and don't like it at all. I find their interpretation somehow superficial in comparison with my favorites; I miss the "profundity" in the music. I'd be curious to hear their live versions, though. Perhaps I'll buy it one day.

[Antoine Marchand]

There are 2 Alban Berg sets appparently - the EMI studio version from about 1985 and a live set recorded 4 years later. Some think the 'live' is an improvement but I can't seem to find it. Any one else have an opinion?

I have the live recording with these covers:



Two 4-CD sets recorded "live" at the Mozart-Saal Konzerthaus, Vienna, VI.1989.

IMO these renditions are quite more impassioned than the studio recordings, a sort of short comeback to the glorious Teldec years. But I am not too much Beethovenian, so -if I were you- I would only consider the objective information. 

Here a review at Gramophone.

[david-jw]

I have the Alban Berg's live set of the late quartets -both on CD (ie the GROC EMI discs) and the DVD's.

Apart from their Grosse Fuge- which is amazing! - I also find these performances lacking in weight.

They are thrilling performances- very aggressive, sometimes to the degree of over-pointing, and as such it is very refreshing to listen to these recordings, because they really shake it up. Its like listening to the late quartets for the first time again. Cobwebs blown away.

Remarkable ensemble playing too.

However for me they dont make the final cut of first rank sets, because the intellectual and emotional depth just isnt there, particularly in the slow movements. Let me be clear- I'm not one for dripping sentimentalism.

But these works need to transcend. They are rich and strange.

The ABQ dont get beneath the surface, brilliant though their surface is.

here's where I am at the moment on other recordings.

For a complete set the Quartetto Italiano are hard to beat imo. Consistently playing of an exemplary standard, nicely balanced classical restraint but infused with intense feeling (anything but sentimental). Deeply serious in their approach. Never a lapse in taste. Never mawkish. Strong, vibrant performances of exceptional intensity.

Their middle period quartets are still field leaders, the early are very highly regarded and all their late quartets are first rank with the exception of Op 131, which they just dont find a way into imo (Vegh stereo the way to go here).

I'm biased though because I imprinted on QI 

Anyone who loves the late quartets has to experience the Busch, now complete with Op 132 liscenced from Sony and very cheap on EMI GROC (although the 133 is the Busch string ensemble not the quartet). Sublime in a word

I find the Juilliard 1960's cerebal, stylish, dark and very interesting. Every phrase has been considered and this set always challenges my view of this music.

Amadeus- sound is dry and a bit thin. They are hit and miss. Havent aged as well as the QI who were perhaps their main rivals for supremacy at the time. However their Op 132! - 1st movt has requisite driven quality, second movement is passionate and yearning, Heiliger Dankgesang  is as much tender and sorrowfull as joyful and very beautifully played, final movement balances lightness and death haunted shade, and is full of well, wisdom. The transfiguration from despair to acceptance at the end of the last movement is handled in an exemplary way.

Their Op 135 is one of the best- their slow movement makes the case for this perhaps being the greatest of Beethoven's quartet adagio's.

Hollywood Quartet- I have never heard any quartet play with such ensemble. They play like one mind with 8 arms. Here you really can hear every line also though. Its an remarkable experience to hear.

Their Op 132 is very fine. outer movements beautifully controlled and interior. Heiliger Dankgesang extraordinary tonality, and very profound in the way the tragedy returns towards the end at the acknowlagement that relief is only temporary and death will still come.  Final movement restrained, timeless, deft and full of grace. Very moving. Op 131 is great also.

Budapest Quartet- I only have the library of congress set and so far have only listened to Op 127 which left me "meh" and the Op 132 which blew me away and is the closest thing I have ever heard to a definitive 132- intensley concentrated, penetrating and transfiguring- numinous is the best word I think.

Vermeer- really enjoying their late quartet recordings. Exquisitly played (but not "pretty"), with unique phrasing that makes the listening experience fresh again. Deeply thought interpretations, where often an individual line or phrase will jump out and you go "but of course!"

Medici Quartet- I'm surprised but I really like these. Kinetic, intense, muscular, vibrant performances that constantly surprise on first hearing. Well worth exploring as part of a collection. Shame the 1980's digital sound is a bit glassy.

Talich- these are real slow burners, real dark horses.  Seem like intimate, unassuming performances. Dark in timbre. Seemingly low key, but infact introspective, contained, interior,enigmatic, withheld, mysterious. I just keep coming back to these. Very unique.

Vegh Stereo- Op 131 is one of the finest imo. They know its secrets like no one else.  I'm struggling a bit with their recordings of the other late quartets- a bit flaccid?

Lindsay Quartet 1980's- unfashionable now, but I think these still stand tall. Dark, rough timbre, very grave and serious. They really find the "lateness" in the Op 127- so often it sounds more akin to a middle period work. Their recording really places it firmly of the same DNA as the other late works.

Takacs- beautifully played and recorded but superficial imo.

I have the Yale cycle but dont know what I think of it yet.

The Emerson are fun until you tire of the ultra fast tempi.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Hollywood Quartet- I have never heard any quartet play with such ensemble. They play like one mind with 8 arms. Here you really can hear every line also though. Its an remarkable experience to hear.

If you like impressive ensemble there's another foursome out there that's second to none in that department: the Hagen Quartet. 

Their recordings of the late quartets are as impressive as they come and have become my favorites (their op.18's are just as impressive - I wish they'd record all of them). Impressive as their ensemble is it's their musicality that really impresses. They really know how to make the music sing.

Takacs- beautifully played and recorded but superficial imo.

I have the Takacs in the Op.18 and find them extremely enjoyable.

[The new erato]

If you like impressive ensemble there's another foursome out there that's second to none in that department: the Hagen Quartet. 

Their recordings of the late quartets are as impressive as they come and have become my favorites (their op.18's are just as impressive - I wish they'd record all of them). Impressive as their ensemble is it's their musicality that really impresses. They really know how to make the music sing.

I have the Takacs in the Op.18 and find them extremely enjoyable.

I like the Takacs (generally) too....but one have no right to own any Beethoven SQ disc before the Busch is aquired.

[Mandryka]

Busch in Op 95 certainly.

[dirkronk]

Anyone who loves the late quartets has to experience the Busch, now complete with Op 132 liscenced from Sony and very cheap on EMI GROC (although the 133 is the Busch string ensemble not the quartet). Sublime in a word

Agree totally. Old fashioned performance style, to be sure, but in the very best sense...and a depth of understanding of the music that's impossible to ignore.

BTW, I assume you meant op.130 as the Sony-licensed performance? (Columbia, later Sony, held the rights to #7 op.59/1 from 1942 and 13 op.130 from 1941.) Or is there a different op.132 performance that I'm unaware of?

Ever since the days of vinyl (yep, still have my copy from then), I've seldom been able to put on that op.130 without sitting mesmerized all the way through the performance...and frequently wishing for an instant replay!

Cheers,

Dirk

[david-jw]

Agree totally. Old fashioned performance style, to be sure, but in the very best sense...and a depth of understanding of the music that's impossible to ignore.

BTW, I assume you meant op.130 as the Sony-licensed performance? (Columbia, later Sony, held the rights to #7 op.59/1 from 1942 and 13 op.130 from 1941.) Or is there a different op.132 performance that I'm unaware of?

Ever since the days of vinyl (yep, still have my copy from then), I've seldom been able to put on that op.130 without sitting mesmerized all the way through the performance...and frequently wishing for an instant replay!

Cheers,

Dirk

Yup, my bad, its was getting late

I meant the 130 indeed.

cheers

David

[Herman]

For a complete set the Quartetto Italiano are hard to beat imo. Consistently playing of an exemplary standard, nicely balanced classical restraint but infused with intense feeling (anything but sentimental). Deeply serious in their approach. Never a lapse in taste. Never mawkish. Strong, vibrant performances of exceptional intensity.

Their middle period quartets are still field leaders, the early are very highly regarded and all their late quartets are first rank with the exception of Op 131, which they just dont find a way into imo (Vegh stereo the way to go here).

I'm biased though because I imprinted on QI 

I think you're biased yes. I like the QI's middle quartets, but I find their late quartets generally insufferable in their metaphysical, nagging character. There is a lot of fun and clowning about in the late quartets (cf Diabelli Vrs) but with the QI everything sounds like a holy mass.

This is partly the era, but since we're not part of that era anymore I cannot agree with the above. And it was one my first versions, too.

[david-jw]

I think you're biased yes. I like the QI's middle quartets, but I find their late quartets generally insufferable in their metaphysical, nagging character. There is a lot of fun and clowning about in the late quartets (cf Diabelli Vrs) but with the QI everything sounds like a holy mass.

This is partly the era, but since we're not part of that era anymore I cannot agree with the above. And it was one my first versions, too.

Imprinting is a terrible thing 

[RJR]

Let's hear it for the Hungarian String Quartet. Has any label released their complete Beethoven on CD yet?

[Todd]

Let's hear it for the Hungarian String Quartet. Has any label released their complete Beethoven on CD yet?

EMI has reissued the mono cycle several times.  It is quite good.  The manager of the local classical specialist store said that he imported the stereo cycle from Japan a while back, but HMV Japan does not currently seem to list it.

[RJR]

The first movement of Op. 59 #1 played by the Hungarian String Quartet always hits the sweet spot for me.

[RJR]

I had that, good performances, absolutely execrable sound quality.  I could not justify tryinig to listen to it when there are lots of modern ensembles that play just as convincingly with infinitely superior audio engineering.

Execrable? Are you French?