Beethoven String Quartets on record

[pastoralguy]

I’ve very much enjoyed the newish recordings from the Cuarteto Casals.

[Bryn]

The Busch quartet recordings have been a great solace in isolation especially their Op 130 and 131.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread. It has reminded me to import the Smetana Quartet's survey from QOBUZ.

[RichardB]

For the past week or so, when I haven't been actually listening to anything I've had op.132 on repeat in my head, not from start to finish but always beginning again from some random point and continuing from there until something else gets my attention, almost as if it's going on all the time and I can only hear it when nothing else is going on. At various points I've thought, I really ought to just listen to it now. But not yet.

[Bryn]

For the past week or so, when I haven't been actually listening to anything I've had op.132 on repeat in my head, not from start to finish but always beginning again from some random point and continuing from there until something else gets my attention, almost as if it's going on all the time and I can only hear it when nothing else is going on. At various points I've thought, I really ought to just listen to it now. But not yet.

As intended, I imported the Smetana Quartet's Nippon Columbia recordings of the complete quartets. I have just been listening to Op. 130 (unrevised version). This is very much to my taste. I would recommend that you sample. The revised final movement is also included, + the SQ arrangement of OP 14. I note that the CDs come with a Hi-es download code.

Come to think of it, you might already know the late quartets in these recordings from their earlier, separate, issue. These, however, have been newly remastered from the original 'tapes'.

[RichardB]

Come to think of it, you might already know the late quartets in these recordings from their earlier, separate, issue. These, however, have been newly remastered from the original 'tapes'.

I don't, but I will give it a go. I've ended up listening to the A minor quartet four times since yesterday, twice with the Hagens and twice with the Mosaïques which I preferred.

[french frank]

I've ended up listening to the A minor quartet four times since yesterday.

Never hoped to find something on which we think alike! I still go for the Quartetto Italiano.

[Joseph K]

Never hoped to find something on which we think alike!

I'm sure there are many of us round here who like Beethoven.

... except for Serial Apologist...

[french frank]

I'm sure there are many of us round here who like Beethoven.

The A minor is probably the work I go to more than any other, by any composer.

... except for Serial Apologist...

[Bryn]

Never hoped to find something on which we think alike! I still go for the Quartetto Italiano.

From the 1960s onwards, they were my "go-to" for the Beethoven String Quartets. I still love their survey but have since got more to appreciate other, more HIPP, approaches by the likes of the Mosaïques, Eroica and Chiaroscuros. These Smetana Quartet performances lie somewhere between the Italians and the HIPPs, I suppose.

[RichardB]

From the 1960s onwards, they were my "go-to" for the Beethoven String Quartets. I still love their survey but have since got more to appreciate other, more HIPP, approaches by the likes of the Mosaïques, Eroica and Chiaroscuros.

I agree, although I haven't listened to the Italiani for quite a few years. I recall that the recordings came to seem somewhat dated at some point. I settled on the Hagens more recently as my default recording, but when the Mosaïques came out I started to find the Hagens a bit too "retrospective" in the sense of seeing Beethoven in the context of later music more than in the context of its own time and sound.

[jayne lee wilson]

All borrowed LPs here initally.
First the Italianos, but once I'd staggered home with the Complete, slightly dog-eared Box of the Vegh Stereo.... that was it. They weren't in great condition and the noise often tried my patience but I knew they were special; they reached deeper and sang more intimately. After Hans Keller's 1970s talks on the Late Quartets, OP.130 especially, I OD'd on them and had to keep away for some years. I went backwards through the Op.59s, (Simpson talks, Italiano LPs) but usually heard this canon on R3 relays.

Latterly, after many borrowed and bought sets and samples, broadcasts and webcasts, my current go-to is the 1952 Veghs (lovely Music & Arts boxset, excellent remaster). Particularly as I tend to play Op.18 much more now, and the earlier Vegh set is very good in those. But I'll be checking out the Chiaroscuros soon.

But Op.130 (that ethereal development in the 1st movement is often in my head) remains very special to me (along with 135 "Must it be? It must be!": a wonderfully deft and subtle work which wears its profundity lightly.).
I may be in a minority here, but I came to prefer the shorter dance-rondo-finale for the complete Op.130, with Op.133 as a separate experience....

I recall Simpson once, mischievous as ever, suggested playing Op.130 as a 7-movement work, with the dance finale last....

[Bryn]

All borrowed LPs here initally.
First the Italianos, but once I'd staggered home with the Complete, slightly dog-eared Box of the Vegh Stereo.... that was it. They weren't in great condition and the noise often tried my patience but I knew they were special; they reached deeper and sang more intimately. After Hans Keller's 1970s talks on the Late Quartets, OP.130 especially, I OD'd on them and had to keep away for some years. I went backwards through the Op.59s, (Simpson talks, Italiano LPs) but usually heard this canon on R3 relays.

Latterly, after many borrowed and bought sets and samples, broadcasts and webcasts, my current go-to is the 1952 Veghs (lovely Music & Arts boxset, excellent remaster). Particularly as I tend to play Op.18 much more now, and the earlier Vegh set is very good in those. But I'll be checking out the Chiaroscuros soon.

But Op.130 (that ethereal development in the 1st movement is often in my head) remains very special to me (along with 135 "Must it be? It must be!": a wonderfully deft and subtle work which wears its profundity lightly.).
I may be in a minority here, but I came to prefer the shorter dance-rondo-finale for the complete Op.130, with Op.133 as a separate experience....

I recall Simpson once, mischievous as ever, suggested playing Op.130 as a 7-movement work, with the dance finale last....

Re the replacement final movement for Op. 130, I like the Belcea's approach of performing and recording both the original and the revised versions of the quartet separately for their Blu-rays. Another survey I much admire.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm sure there are many of us round here who like Beethoven.

... except for Serial Apologist...

Oh no! - I really love the "late quartets", and the two sets of piano variations. It's the "middle period" works I'm less enamelled of: probably as a consequence of over-exposure by my Beethoven-fanatical father in my childhood. I'm one of those evasive unprincipled people who tend to prefer what later composers have "done" with some of the more radical aspects of the music of the greats - Schoenberg or Bartok with the "late" Beethoven quartets; Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin or Busoni with Liszt - to cite two examples.

[Joseph K]

Oh no! - I really love the "late quartets", and the two sets of piano variations. It's the "middle period" works I'm less enamelled of: probably as a consequence of over-exposure by my Beethoven-fanatical father in my childhood. I'm one of those evasive unprincipled people who tend to prefer what later composers have "done" with some of the more radical aspects of the music of the greats - Schoenberg or Bartok with the "late" Beethoven quartets; Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin or Busoni with Liszt - to cite two examples.

I'm fond of all of Beethoven (absolutely no chance of OD-ing on his or any other classical composer's music in my youth ).

I'm particularly fond of op.127 of the Late Quartets and indeed of Beethoven's whole oeuvre.

[HighlandDougie]

I'm one of those evasive unprincipled people who tend to prefer what later composers have "done" with some of the more radical aspects of the music of the greats

Nothing evasive or unprincipled about that! You do yourself a disservice. As an aside, not sure whether it was auto-correct or not which led to the wonderful notion of being "self-enamelled" rather than "self-enamoured" - I like the idea of a glossily shiny SA.