Beethoven String Quartets on record

[teamsaint]

Just been listening to the Smetana Quartet's 1959 recording of 0p 18 , no 4, on a CD from the Westminster Legacy box.

The sound, performance, and effect are just breathtaking. Well they are to me , at least. Perhaps its just my mood.
They didn't get much of a mention on this thread.

Just going to pile into the Razumovsky #3, with which it is paired.

[Madame Suggia]

Bought the complete Vegh recordings on naive last year for around £17

Superb!

[Bryn]

Bought the complete Vegh recordings on naive last year for around £17

Superb!

Indeed, but beware if you have a mind to rip the CDs for hard disc or solid state playback. They use use pre-emphasis which needs to be resolved for such use. See earlier discussions of this topic.

[Roehre]

- you, me and Robert Simpson alike! Beethoven's comments on the Music of Weber suggest that he wasn't exactly enamoured of the Early Romantic works he knew. Indeed, aside from Mendelssohn's Octet, none of the "concert" works associated with "Early Romanticism" were written until after Beethoven died - Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique the earliest, perhaps at three years AB?

Interesting to remember that when 16 year-old Mendelssohn wrote his Octet in 1825, Beethoven was starting work on his last S4tets! (And the Schubert String Quintet was three years off!)

Stuff for a dissertation for a doctorate: Mendelssohn's own compostional interpretation of "late Beethoven" occurs in 1827 and 1829 with his quartets opp.12 and 13.

Now we have to take some beethovenian developments in account as well: the 5 late quartets don't represent one style.
Op.127 stands (as a 4-mvt work without "GF-related" themes) on its own, op. 132 (5mvts) opp.130/133 (6 mvts) and op.131 (7 mvts) from a closed group, not only in thematc relationships and movements being swapped, but also in their experimental approach -"romantic", unbound if you like, of this form.
Op.135 is a return to "classicism", as is the finale of 130, apart from one canon the very last movement /work which B completed.

Beethoven himself expressed his wishes to return to more simple, if you like classical forms [or even baroque [Handel!} , as experimented with in op.124 and parts of the Mass op.123]), as his sketches for a flute quintet (flute + 4 strings), an introduction to a 1st mvt of a string quintet (survived as WoO 62), combined with his utterances from the summer and autumn of 1826 that he liked to compose slighter works à la Handel testify.

It is a big question whether Beethoven actually knew (much) music of Weber. He was told e.g. that the overture to Der Freischütz was a kind of plagiarism of the Fidelio-overture. We all know that THAT is complete and utter nonsense.
He knew some Schubert as scores of the latter were among those found in his collection at the time of his death. None of Weber's, however.

[Bryn]

Having bought the 2 volumes of the Belcea CD survey of the Beethoven String Quartets when they were released, I have now added:



If only I had some time to listen to/watch them at the moment.

[Bryn]

If only I had some time to listen to/watch them at the moment.

Well this evening I have made some time to watch/listen to the revised version of Op. 130 (with which they closed the first concert of their Wiener Konzerhaus series, closing the final concert with the original version with its Grosse Fuge finale). Yes the 4 Blu-ray set has both complete performances. Highly recommended, so far. Strangely the audio options are only listed as "PCM Stereo ad DTS HS Master Audio 5.0. No indication of sample rate of quantization level of offered.

[gamba]

As an aside, may I recommend Leonard Betnstein's 'orchestral' version of op. 131 with the Vienna Philharmonic? Ok, it's not what Beethoven intended but it's a great ride!

No Way !!!!

[gurnemanz]

Busch FLAC download here

[pastoralguy]

No Way !!!!

Ok. Explanation please...

[LeMartinPecheur]

Stuff for a dissertation for a doctorate: Mendelssohn's own compostional interpretation of "late Beethoven" occurs in 1827 and 1829 with his quartets opp.12 and 13.

Roehre: doesn't it rather start earlier, e.g. with M's Piano Sonata Op6 of 1826? This is surely, ahem, heavily influenced by late LvB, or even a complete rip-off IIRC of Op101, though I'm not rushing to check!

[teamsaint]

Anybody know of available streams or youtube links to the Setana Quartet recordings of the first two Razumovsky quartets?

[Bryn]

Anybody know of available streams or youtube links to the Setana Quartet recordings of the first two Razumovsky quartets?

Mmm. I can't help you there but I eagerly await the appearance of these on QOBUZ:

[richardfinegold]

Mmm. I can't help you there but I eagerly await the appearance of these on QOBUZ:

Are these new recordings?

[Bryn]

Are these new recordings?

No. From the blurb:

The Smetana Quartet are a true legend. For over four decades (1945-1989), the ensemble gained critical acclaim and enthused audiences all over world, particularly in the UK, USA and Japan. They attained perfect chime and extraordinary flexibility in voice leading, resulting in part from their playing the entire repertoire by heart. The quartet performed Beethoven's works throughout their existence following Smetana, he was the composer on whose music they focused the most and whose complete quartets were in their repertoire from 1974 onwards. They explored some of Beethoven's pieces for several years before including them in their concert programmes.

In collaboration with a Supraphon team, in 1976 the ensemble embarked upon a colossal project, which in 1985 came to fruition with the release on Nippon Columbia of a recording of the complete Beethoven string quartets. Even though the past decade has seen significant changes pertaining to interpretation and technology, the Smetana Quartet's account of Beethoven's works is by no means a museum exhibit , with their vivacity and dynamism still enthralling today's listeners. The recording, carefully digitally remastered from the original analogue tapes, is the very first release beyond Japan. Lovers of perfect sound are afforded the opportunity to listen to it Hi-Res 24 bit/192 kHz.

Recorded between 1974 1985.

A seprate set of just the late quartets, which I think are from the same recordings, was release by Supraphon a few years ago.

[Barbirollians]

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