BaL 26.10.13 - Beethoven String Quartet in C Sharp Minor Op 131

[LeMartinPecheur]

Available versions:-
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Soloists of the International Musicians' Seminar (download)
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I have this IMS version (unless there's more than one such), bought mainly because Krysia Osostowicz is one of the 1st violins in the coupled Grosse Fuge. Aye, there's the rub - one of the 1sts...! Both this and op131 have 4 or 5 players to a part

I don't much like string quartets pumped up into string orch versions, and hoped this recording might work better in that it ought to keep the original balance - lost in str orch versions - by having equal no's of players to each part. But for me it still loses too much of the essential quartet experience. Indeed, I'm very surprised that Sandor Vegh, the then IMS director and apparently the conductor of these performances, should have gone down this route at all.

Anyone else own this recording (was Capriccio 10 356, r.1987/9) or have views on the multiple-strings issue?

[Alison]

Who's reviewing on this occasion please?

[Thropplenoggin]

Who's reviewing on this occasion please?

A chap called Martin Cotton.

[Alison]

A chap called Martin Cotton.

Thanks.

Enthusiasm stifled somewhat :(

[Sir Velo]

Enthusiasm stifled somewhat :(

Modified rapture eh Alison?

Actually, IIRC, MC is a BBC producer who's done a few of these BALs. Seems to specialise in 20th century British music with recent BALs on Walton's 1st and Elgar's VC. Seemed to do all right, if memory serves.

Perhaps more pertinently, Martin Cotton also reviewed available recordings of the Jupiter symphony. Went for Norrington, IIRC, so expect fast tempi (sorry Italian Quartet fans) and a certain iconoclasm, though not necessarily HIPP.

[verismissimo]

Belceas the winners and sounding excellent to my ears.
Not a trace of HIP in Mr Cotton's review?

[Beresford]

I found MC's review a bit technical, and his recommendation, the Belcea quartet, a little too overheated for repeated listening - but great live.
Relieved I still prefer my CD of the Hagens, (which has the score embedded in it for some reason). They can sound a bit cool - but respect for the music shows through, so I find more in it each time I listen.

[Thropplenoggin]

The Belcea Quartet's recent recording of this work is excellent.

[Sir Velo]

Insider information, Throps?

[edashtav]

I found MC's review a bit technical, and his recommendation, the Belcea quartet, a little too overheated for repeated listening - but great live.

Surely live is best?
If you need a less heated version for repeated listening, are you listening too often, I wonder?
[op 131 is for special days , not every day.]
That the Belcea achieved so much, so accurately, in live performance was a source of awe & wonder to me.

[Richard Tarleton]

Well he didn't tell me to bin my QI, which pleased me. I enjoyed MC's "technical" approach to BAL - I like to gain insights into the work in question, not just hear the reviewer's opinions - for me the more objective the better. He was sort of David Owen Norris without the jokes.

And yes, 131 for special occasions - I only listen to it when conditions, and my mental state, are exactly right.

And that sawn-off Ballo BAL the other week all the more mystifying - perhaps it was down to the presenter....

[Nick Armstrong]

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[Thropplenoggin]

Well he didn't tell me to bin my QI, which pleased me. I enjoyed MC's "technical" approach to BAL - I like to gain insights into the work in question, not just hear the reviewer's opinions - for me the more objective the better. He was sort of David Owen Norris without the jokes.

[Thropplenoggin]

Insider information, Throps?

I believe this is the third one I have called correctly.

[Thropplenoggin]

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