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

[gradus]

Having endured clicks pops and jumps I was and remain convinced that digital sound is a huge advance over the vinyl lp especially for songs, solo instrumentalists and chamber music where really quiet singing/playing often emerged through a background of vinyl snap crackle and pop. I don't think I'd have the patience to clean vinyl records using a machine though I dust-bugged, parastated etc. my collection over many years, I am glad to be through with it.

[Beresford]

Heart and Head

...The Vegh CDs (from the heart straight TO the heart) were my one-and-only for many years, the polished Italiano another borrowed challenger... later aquired two Juilliards, 1969 in the studio and a later Library of Congress live one... but god knows how they'd stack up now against the Talichs etc...

Agree, the Vegh quartet reach to the heart, and IMHO the Hagen to the head. Maybe the Talichs reach somewhere in between. The Hagen and Talich were equal second in the BAL review.
This is wonderful music, and I enjoy hearing what different groups make of it.

[verismissimo]

Intrigued by your advocacy, Bryn, I've invested in the Brooklyn Rider recording. Their rather radical approach to music (and its marketing) clearly divides...

Brooklyn Rider recording arrived and auditioned. Exciting (and accurate) playing. Good recording. Low on vibrato.

But what also struck me from bar one was their unashamed use of portamento.

Altogether refreshing! Thanks Bryn.

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks Bryn.

With my interest also piqued by the advocacy of the Great Seer of Braccan Heal (aka Bryn of Bracknell) and by reading about Brooklyn Rider in the New Yorker, I can only echo what Verismissimo says: exciting, impeccably played and musically lived-in. Recorded in a big acoustic (a church in New Jersey), the music is allowed to breathe and gains a certain serenity which I much warm to. I'm off to explore more by them as I would very much like to hear what they make of Bartok. It should be very good if this rather special Beethoven is anything to go by.

[soileduk]

With my interest also piqued by the advocacy of the Great Seer of Braccan Heal (aka Bryn of Bracknell) and by reading about Brooklyn Rider in the New Yorker, I can only echo what Verismissimo says: exciting, impeccably played and musically lived-in. Recorded in a big acoustic (a church in New Jersey), the music is allowed to breathe and gains a certain serenity which I much warm to. I'm off to explore more by them as I would very much like to hear what they make of Bartok. It should be very good if this rather special Beethoven is anything to go by.

I like the Bartok disc, have a look…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00CJ87QSK/mffindcd-21

[HighlandDougie]

I like the Bartok disc, have a look…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...SK/mffindcd-21

Many thanks. I much look forward to hearing it.

[rauschwerk]

A very small point indeed, but were all the Belcea performances recorded live? The two concerts I attended during their cycle at Snape were not recorded and I thought some were recorded without an audience.
Count me amongst their (the quartets and the Belcea) devotees.

Some were 'recorded live' as the curious expression has it. I was at the concert where Op 131 was given and there were microphones. Indeed, there was a long pause in Op 131 whilst the source of a high pitched whistling sound was identified. This irritated me a good deal, I must say.