Mozart,Haydn,Beethoven String Quartets......


Anybody have a specific quartet preference in regards to these performances? I am looking for great performances and great digital recordings...thanks...
phasecorrect

Showing 3 responses by buxter66

To be completely honest, I can't think of any truly great performances on digital. I can think of great performances transfered to cd that sound great:

Hungarian S.Q.- their complete Beethoven is the best studio recorded set I know of. No compromises here. Their Mozart and Haydn is masterful as well. Check out their Brahms quartets, fantastic.

The Griller S.Q. on Dutton Labs, fabulous mozart and Haydn. One of the best examples of British string chamber musicians on record. Real elegance and style.

There is a live recording of the Quartetto Italiano playing a recital of Mozart d minor, Haydn lark, dvorak american, and debussy quartet(?). organic, and the best quartetto italiano recording I know of. Their Phillip's recordings all sound sterile, thin, static and boring to me.

The Budapest S.Q. live at the library of Congress, esp. the late quartets "live" readily avail at any tower records. the budapest at their finest, human, full blooded, deep performances. I think it is on bridge records(?)

Capet S. Q. playing anything.... now this a completely, much higher level of artistry. Spiritual, deep, elegant, stylish, human, organic, realness, true string technique/art, check them out. Their late beethoven is stunning. Also Mozart is pristine. Finest Schumann too.

I would pay Busch S.Q. lip service out of respect and admiration and awe, but find when it comes to pleasure listening (which is the only I have time for) I find it a little tiresome.

Happy listening!
they are interesting... they are one of the uncategorizable "authentic" quartets, due the inventiveness and instinctive playing of Hobart. Will gve them a relisten. I recall thinking that Hobart kind of outshined the rest of the group....
Ewha, I really like that dvorak piano quintet recording with rubinstein. It is my favorite Guarneri S.Q. recording who otherwise I find sound overproduced. I didn't know why I liked that particular recording for the longest time and then I was told that they sight read the piece the studio. Of course they had all performed that work many times... but it has a life and spontaniety that I find missing in many of their other recordings.