The ONE Beethoven String Quartet Cycle to Rule Them All!

[mn dave]

Choose only ONE CYCLE, please. Make your choice CLEAR in your post, please. Make sure they recorded a FULL cycle, please.

THANK YOU! 

All I have is Talich. :/

Talich 1

[George]

Vegh, stereo

[Moonfish]

Tolkien, mono

[Ken B]

What, no "One Wellington's Victory to Rule Them All" thread?

[Papy Oli]

Gewandhaus Quartett.

[Todd]

[mn dave]

Talich 1
Budapest 51/52 1
Vegh - stereo 1
Gewandhaus 1

[Ken B]

Well, I have not heard a huge number of these but I am plumping, perhaps nostalgically, for the first set I owned, at 18, and wore out. Hungarian Quartet 60s.

[Jay F]

Emerson

[SonicMan46]

Hey Dave - see that you're starting a poll and already have a bunch of single votes! 

For me, I own 2 complete sets: 1) Takacs Quartet; and 2) Alexander String Quartet - can I get a 1/2 vote for each? 

Well, then add the Alexanders to the list - Dave

[Brahmsian]

Quartetto Italiano

Takacs Qt. for their magnificent Op. 135.  Well, their whole set is great.

I'll go like this:

0.6 Quartetto Italiano
0.4 Takacs

[mn dave]

Talich 1
Budapest 51/52 1
Vegh - stereo 1
Gewandhaus 1
Italiano 1
Alexander 1
Emerson 1
Hungarian 1

[amw]

Belcea.

[mn dave]

Talich 1
Budapest 51-52 1
Vegh - stereo 1
Gewandhaus 1
Italiano 1
Alexander 1
Emerson 1
Hungarian 1
Belcea 1

Well, this isn't going to be clear-cut, now is it.

[prémont]

Talich 1
Budapest 51-52 1
Vegh - stereo 1
Gewandhaus 1
Italiano 1
Alexander 1
Emerson 1
Hungarian 1
Belcea 1

Well, this isn't going to be clear-cut, now is it.

Having listened "in vain" to rather many different interpretations, the Vegh stereo set was the one, which "opened" these works to me, so i vote for Vegh stereo, even if I since then have got many more favorites.

[mn dave]

Vegh - stereo 2
Talich 1
Budapest 51-52 1
Gewandhaus 1
Italiano 1
Alexander 1
Emerson 1
Hungarian 1
Belcea 1

[Brahmsian]

What, no "One Wellington's Victory to Rule Them All" thread?

  My vote is for the performance that sounds like scrunching paper of all scores of this work, tossed in a garbage and torched, forever erased from existence.   

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Alban Berg (EMI, studio)

[amw]

Well, this isn't going to be clear-cut, now is it.

The essential incomplete cycles (+ single disc)

Busch (Dutton)
Mosaïques
Hagen
Juilliard Op131 + Schubert D810 (Testament)

[mn dave]

Vegh - stereo 2
Talich 1
Budapest 51-52 1
Gewandhaus 1
Italiano 1
Alexander 1
Emerson 1
Hungarian 1
Belcea 1
Alban Berg (EMI, studio) 1