Beethoven's String Quartets

Started by marvinbrown, July 14, 2007, 02:29:06 PM

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Novi

Quote from: masolino on September 25, 2007, 02:33:46 AM
The Mosaiques have only done all six in the Op. 18 set so far but they are all very good if you prefer your Beethoven articulate but not impetuous (i.e. consistent with their Haydn and Mozart).  The Quatuor Turner (OOP but available used or as overstock) Op. 18 has it more up to speed overall.  I will urge people to hear the Schuppanzigh 18/4 and 59/3 (Ars musici) in the same vein but it appears to be oop as well.  The one disc from the Eroica Quartet (opp. 74, 95, 135) is quite good if one likes the British HIP style - the Mosaiques are Viennese and the Turner Franco-Flemish the Schuppanzigh German respectively in that regard :))

Thanks for the reviews :).

Hmm, these are elusive. The only ones I can find are the Mosaiques and Turner. I think the cellist in the Eroica is the lead cellist in my local, the SCO. Maybe I should waylay him at a concert and get him to give me a copy :P.

Masolino, can I ask, what's distinctive about British HIP? Is this in contast to the other ensembles you mention as a kind of 'Continental' mode of HIP?
Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

ChamberNut

Quote from: Scriptavolant on July 14, 2007, 07:42:52 PM
Leaning on much more experienced minds - since I didn't listen to a consistent range of interpretations -, if I had to recommend a recording , I'd go for our great Quartetto Italiano.



Enjoy.

Ah yes!!  That's what I'm listening to right now.  My favorite CD in my entire collection are the complete Beethoven String Quartets by the Quartetto Italiano.   :)

Peregrine

Juilliard all the way for me, nothing matches their technical brilliance and musicality, but do replace the Op.131 with the Testament disc - it's stunning. Smetana's are great on Supraphon with the late SQ's. I've always found the Italian Quartet to really shine in the Op.18, but don't find they reach the emotional depths in middle and late SQ's.

Recently started buying the Petersen Quartet's cycle - very impressed thus far...

Got rid of Vegh cycle.
Yes, we have no bananas

Rod Corkin

#103
Quote from: Expresso on July 15, 2007, 12:18:17 AM
The Juilliard's from the 60's. Very intense performance and good sound quality.

It's worth buying a whole set of SQ's, even the first ones have many qualities. Also it comes cheaper than buying various different quartets.

The first ones are full of qualities, it is just that they are, of all Beethoven's quartets, the least studied or understood by musicians. I suggest at the time they were the best quartets to have been composed, until Beethoven composed a few more...
"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/classicalmusicmayhem/

Ephemerid

It will be some time before I get it, but I eventually want to get a recording of all of Beethoven's string quartets.  I've got a few individual ones, but I'd like one big set. 

Suggestions? Opinions? Ideas?

Thanks!  :)

Mark

Do the words 'can', 'opened' and 'worms' mean anything to you?

Expect a bewildering number of personal choices. Or links to those choices in the numerous other threads on this topic. ;D

Josquin des Prez

60s Julliard on sony (Early, Middle)

Talich on Callipe (Middle, Late)

Takacs (Early, Middle)


Ephemerid

Hmmm...

What if I phrase it this way... what do folks here think about the Emerson Quartet's recording?  I've been eyeing them based on what I've heard of other recordings by them (Ives, Shostakovich, Barber, Carter).

PerfectWagnerite

Emerson? Fantastic, but a bit pricey. As a cheap primary recommendation I say go for the incomparable Alban Berg Quartet on EMI. Draw-dropping intonation and tightness of attack, huge dynamic range, and some of the most powerful bowing you will ever hear, all for about $25.

The Talich is very good in the early quartets, I feel they are missing something in the later quartets. Also I am not a big fan of their light tone.

Josquin des Prez

Quote from: just josh on March 04, 2008, 05:48:43 AM
What if I phrase it this way... what do folks here think about the Emerson Quartet's recording?

Outstanding technique, but musically void.


Josquin des Prez

#110
Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on March 04, 2008, 06:14:28 AM
Emerson? Fantastic, but a bit pricey. As a cheap primary recommendation I say go for the incomparable Alban Berg Quartet on EMI. Draw-dropping intonation and tightness of attack, huge dynamic range, and some of the most powerful bowing you will ever hear, all for about $25.

Sorry to disagree, but by the time the Alban Berg recorded their Beethoven set they were already past their prime. Their best recordings were made on the Teldec Label (both their Mozart and Brahms are jaw dropping). That said, i really like their perfomance of the opus 130.

Quote from: PerfectWagnerite on March 04, 2008, 06:14:28 AM
The Talich is very good in the early quartets, I feel they are missing something in the later quartets.

You can't be serious. They are one the only ensembles that i know of who have been able to capture the textural subtly of those quartets to perfection. Sound quality may not be perfect but who cares, the performance comes first.

Que

Quote from: just josh on March 04, 2008, 05:37:54 AM
It will be some time before I get it, but I eventually want to get a recording of all of Beethoven's string quartets.  I've got a few individual ones, but I'd like one big set. 

Suggestions? Opinions? Ideas?

Thanks!  :)

Please don't tell me that you thought that this hadn't been done before...  8)

Seeking Recommendations for Recordings of Beethoven's String Quartets

Q

Ephemerid

Quote from: Que on March 04, 2008, 09:42:43 AM
Please don't tell me that you thought that this hadn't been done before...  8)

Seeking Recommendations for Recordings of Beethoven's String Quartets

Q

Ah ha!   :)  Thank you, Q! -- as well as Josquin, PW & Mark  (the posts here are good and interesting too-- sorry I've not been responsive myself-- a very busy day today!!)


(poco) Sforzando

Quote from: Que on March 04, 2008, 09:42:43 AM
Please don't tell me that you thought that this hadn't been done before...  8)

Seeking Recommendations for Recordings of Beethoven's String Quartets

Q

Yes, you can even see something there by Mark about cans and worms.

Judging from their live performances (they are in residence at SUNY Stony Brook, not far from my home in Long Island, NY), I'm not inclined to make the Emerson my first choice. They are certainly very good, but technical wizardry and uniformly fast tempos do not compensate for a lack of the deeply considered phrasing one gets from some of the older groups.

I haven't heard all the available versions by any means, but I don't see a compelling reason to get a single set by one group. But if you must, the incisive Takacs version, the white-hot Juilliard 1960s on Sony (and accept no substitute; the Juilliard group of today is not what is was), or the refined Talichs are all fine and even complementary choices. If you want to buy one set for each period, I'd go with

- the Tokyo RCA for the earlies (a major advantage being that it includes the arrangement of the piano sonata 14/1 as well as the C major quintet, op. 29)
- the Takacs for the middles
- the Yale for the lates, along with the Smetanas that IIRC are on Japanese Denon.

Thumbs down from me on the Italiani. I find them too creamily bland and lacking the incisive edge I want in these quartets.
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

Michel

Berg is always cheap, and bloody good.

Mark

Quote from: Sforzando on March 04, 2008, 10:04:57 AM
Yes, you can even see something there by Mark about cans and worms.

Yep. I'm nothing if not totally lacking in any originality. ;)

val

For the complete Quartets, my choice is the Juilliard.

Regarding the opus 59 the Lindsays and in the opus 59/2 the extraordinary version of the Janacek Quartet.

For the opus 74, 95 and 127 the Italian Quartet, in the opus 130 the Juilliard in a more recent version, in the opus 131 the Vegh and in the opus 132 and 135 the Italiano again.

There are other good versions, but those are my favorites.

marvinbrown

Quote from: Que on March 04, 2008, 09:42:43 AM
Please don't tell me that you thought that this hadn't been done before...  8)

Seeking Recommendations for Recordings of Beethoven's String Quartets

Q

  Ahh and there it is: The old thread I started back to haunt me again!!  Well I did buy the Alban Berg set and what a wonderfull purchase it proved to be.  Beethoven's string quartets are worth knowing- ALL OF THEM  0:).

   My recommendation: Alban Berg Quartet COMPLETE .

   marvin

   

Florestan

Buy all available sets and keep those you like!  ;D :D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

zamyrabyrd

Quote from: marvinbrown on March 05, 2008, 02:12:07 AM
  Ahh and there it is: The old thread I started back to haunt me again!!  Well I did buy the Alban Berg set and what a wonderfull purchase it proved to be.  Beethoven's string quartets are worth knowing- ALL OF THEM  0:).    My recommendation: Alban Berg Quartet COMPLETE .
   marvin   

Just borrowed this whole set. Did someone say "past their prime"?   ???
Put your seat belt on for the e minor Rasumovsky.
Whatta ride in the scherzo and last movement.
Roller coasters are nothing by comparison.
My own possession so far is the Tokyo RCA in the late quartets, also excellent.

ZB
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one."

― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds