Our Summer BAL 23 - Mozart String Quintet in G minor K516

[aeolium]

I don't think this work has been covered in normal BaL for the best part of a decade. I first heard it from the old LP version of the Heutling Quartet with Heinz Otto-Graf and later in the excellent Grumiaux version (first on LP then CD). I also know the Amadeus Quartet's version with Cecil Aronowitz but that for me did not equal the Grumiaux performance.

What of recent recordings (or indeed older ones, like the vintage Griller Quartet with William Primrose)? I have heard some fine broadcast performances but haven't yet been tempted to add to the recordings I have. I think the Grumiauxs may have been the first choice in the BaL a good few years back but there must have been several recordings since then, including a few on period instruments.

[verismissimo]

Such a great work, aeo. I have Grumiauxs and the Takacs on LP. Both beloved, though I can't play them until my diamond is attended to.

I bought the latter in Pest in the last days of the Soviet Empire for a song.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Talich Quartet with Karel Rehak on Caliope gets my vote: this is one of those works that we can point out to any invaders from outer space and say "There! This is what we're capable of! If you can do as well, carry on; if not - go back whence ye came!" safe in the knowledge that the alien craft would change direction and grow a tail specifically for the purpose of putting it between its legs. There are many fine recordings, but the balance between tenderness and fire in the Talich's performance is breathtakingly well realized.

Not expensive, either:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-String-Quintets-K516-516/dp/B000027LVG/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1374400114&sr=1-2&keywords=mozart%2C+string+quintets%2C+talich

[gurnemanz]

Such a great work, aeo. I have Grumiauxs and the Takacs on LP. Both beloved, though I can't play them until my diamond is attended to.

I bought the latter in Pest in the last days of the Soviet Empire for a song.

I got to known this marvellous work an LP from the Ulbrich Quartet (players from Dresden Staatskapelle) which I also acquired in the Soviet Empire - East Germany.
My CD version is Talich mentioned above.

[EdgeleyRob]

The Talich Quartet with Karel Rehak on Caliope gets my vote: this is one of those works that we can point out to any invaders from outer space and say "There! This is what we're capable of! If you can do as well, carry on; if not - go back whence ye came!" safe in the knowledge that the alien craft would change direction and grow a tail specifically for the purpose of putting it between its legs. There are many fine recordings, but the balance between tenderness and fire in the Talich's performance is breathtakingly well realized.

Not expensive, either:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Strin...tets%2C+talich

That's brilliant fhg,I wish I'd thought of that.
I have the Amadeus/Aronowitz.
It's one of those works .......no words to describe what this music means to me.........perhaps there is a god.....sublime.
Going off one one of my silly ramblings again,how can music make me do this.
Those last falling six notes of the slow intro to the finale.....pause...then the first notes of the.... daa da daa da daa da da da da WOW,one of the great moments in all music for me,I'll shut up now.

[teamsaint]

That's brilliant fhg,I wish I'd thought of that.
I have the Amadeus/Aronowitz.
It's one of those works .......no words to describe what this music means to me.........perhaps there is a god.....sublime.
Going off one one of my silly ramblings again,how can music make me do this.
Those last falling six notes of the slow intro to the finale.....pause...then the first notes of the.... daa da daa da daa da da da da WOW,one of the great moments in all music for me,I'll shut up now.

Oh please don't. Apart from anything else, its weeks till footy kicks off.

I have the Lindsays in this.

Any thoughts?

[Arcades Project]

The Talich Quartet with Karel Rehak on Caliope gets my vote

Not expensive, either:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Strin...tets%2C+talich

Mine too (their set of the string quartets is superb, also. As are, if they can be found, the violin sonatas with Petr Messiereur, the quartet's leader, & Stanislav Bogunia).

A favourite of mine, also, comes in a period instrument set on Denon with the Kuijken Quartet & Ryo Terakado (all fine performances, but I'd guess hard to find now).

[french frank]

Hope you still rate the Smithsons with Lisa Rautenberg, arcades, since you recommended the set (or was it just the quartets you were recommending?). Anyway, for a period instrument recording, I love the whole set, with K174 and K516.

[Arcades Project]

Hope you still rate the Smithsons with Lisa Rautenberg, arcades, since you recommended the set (or was it just the quartets you were recommending?). Anyway, for a period instrument recording, I love the whole set, with K174 and K516.

Yes, that's a lovely performance & part of a glorious set.

Still to be found, though not the bargain it was http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chamber-Musi...97&sr=1-2&keyw

[Andrew Preview]

The Talich Quartet with Karel Rehak on Caliope gets my vote

Add my vote too - it's surely a candidate for the thread on great chamber music recordings?

[pastoralguy]

One of the first CDs I ever bought was the Melos Quartet on DG with Franz Beyer on second viola. Once again, for me, it hammered home the advantages of cd whereby you could hear the individual strands of the music and how they interplayed whereas, on Lp and tape, the five voices sounded like a general 'mush'!

Although that disc remained a firmfavourite for many years, I bought a cd of the Grumiaux players playing it on Philips on a disc that had been remastered for the Japanese market. It has to be the clearest cd I've ever heard. Just wonderful!

[LeMartinPecheur]

As usual, a nice boring Penguin Guide answer from LMP: it's always been the Grumiaux for me, on LP and latterly CD as for some strange reason the G minor off LP always sounded edgy on all cartridges, rather as if it had been played on a slightly worn stylus which was possible as I bought it unsealed off the shelves while working in a record/ hifi shop (remember those??) 40-odd yrs ago.

Happy to hear that others may do it better. If this was a real BaL and I heard good samples I might just invest, but I don't think the Grumiaux will ever be inadequate for my needs

The only other version on my shelves seems to be a BBC MM from the Elias 4tet. IIRC it was very decent, but no real challenger to the Gs. Have I missed something?

[Dave2002]

I posted to this thread during the night but took it down again because I was unsure of some details. I may put most of it back later.

I found an MP3 on the Amazon web site, which claims to be by the Griller Quartet. It's part of the Big Mozart Box - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Mozart-B...big+mozart+box and is £7.49 in the UK. It's a real bargain for US buyers as it's under $3 there.

The performance on that set is pretty good, with the possible exception of the last movement, where the leader skates around a bit. Also the recording is perfectly decent. What puzzles me is where the recording comes from, and when it was made. Also, who is the additional viola player. As far as I can tell, the Quartet recorded up to around 1960, and there is/was a recording around 1959 with William Primrose - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griller_Quartet It might be that recording which is on the box set download, but it is clearly in stereo, and the sound, as I have remarked, is decent. The quartet made a lot of recordings for Decca. Is there a discrepancy given that there is a stereo recording attributed to the Griller quartet. Just possible I suppose.

PS: The track listing does show William Primrose as the additional viola player for K515. Probably that applies to K516 too. Maybe it was an early stereo recording.

[richardfinegold]

I don't think this work has been covered in normal BaL for the best part of a decade. I first heard it from the old LP version of the Heutling Quartet with Heinz Otto-Graf and later in the excellent Grumiaux version (first on LP then CD). I also know the Amadeus Quartet's version with Cecil Aronowitz but that for me did not equal the Grumiaux performance.

What of recent recordings (or indeed older ones, like the vintage Griller Quartet with William Primrose)? I have heard some fine broadcast performances but haven't yet been tempted to add to the recordings I have. I think the Grumiauxs may have been the first choice in the BaL a good few years back but there must have been several recordings since then, including a few on period instruments.

I love that Griller recording.

[aeolium]

Dave2002, I think the recording you heard was probably the one with William Primrose as 2nd viola, although there is an earlier one listed with Max Gilbert as the additional player. I have a Dutton disc of the Griller playing Mozart and Haydn quartets I think also recorded in the 1950s and it sounds very good, with lean playing, relatively quick tempi and repeats observed (not common at that time). Their seating formation was apparently unusual in that it went clockwise 1st violin, cello, viola, 2nd violin. Sadly the viola player Philip Burton committed suicide in 1961 and the Quartet disbanded.

Thanks to others for their suggestions; I must listen to the Talich's set if I can get a chance. I think it's worth considering the performances of the companion works as well as the G minor quintet as all four late quintets are imv pinnacles of chamber music, extraordinary in their own right. I particularly like the last two, the D major with a slow introduction to the first movement that returns at its conclusion and the E flat opening with a chattering of violas. The last quintet was supposedly composed "per un Amatore Ongarese" which Robbins Landon among others thinks may well have been the violinist, impresario and merchant Johann Tost (for whom Haydn wrote a number of his quartets). Robbins Landon suggests that there may have been a musical soiree in April 1791 at which the last quintet was performed (possibly with Tost taking the first violin part and Mozart first viola?) but it's not clear what evidence there is for this.