Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Complete String Quartets

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The string quartet is the highest achievement of classical music. How to describe what a great string quartet is/does? Four voices that sing, simultaneously dependently and independently. Or, as Goethe said, "a conversation among four very intelligent and witty persons." After almost 200 years, Beethoven's 16 quartets still stand as the acme of the form, notwithstanding brilliant contributions from just about every important composer since. There are many wonderful performances of the Beethoven quartets available on CD, but none are more distinguished than these performances by the Talich Quartet. More than any other ensemble in my experience, the Talich's performances proclaim that intimacy is the true experience of quartet playing (and listening). Every phrase is projected with exquisite attention to the constantly shifting balance of light and shadow that is the hallmark of the greatest quartet playing. Tempos are vigorous without being rushed, rubato is applied in the subtlest way imaginable, and dynamics seem to explore impossible distinctions between pp and ppp. In short, every performance in this set invites you to carefully listen to Beethoven's musical argument as you've never listened before. As a result, unless you own really sophisticated speakers, the best way to hear these performances is over headphones. (Sound quality is a bit dry, but the acoustic suits the Talich's style perfectly.) Last and certainly least: note the price. Originally available on seven premium-priced CDs, the new Soft Box format provides elegant packaging at a handsomely reduced cost. There is no one way or best way to play this music; Beethoven's accomplishment is too rich to be captured by any one performance or performing group. But the Talich recordings stand among the very best you'll ever hear. It's a very great privilege to listen in on their kind of conversation!

I'm normally a period-instrument listener, almost to the exclusion of everything else. There is no complete cycle of Beethoven's string quartets on period instruments, so I hunted around for a good modern instrument set, and was directed to this one. I am thrilled with the result. The Quatuor Talich give a magnificent reading of this music, allowing the graces and nuances of Beethoven's sometimes fiendishly difficult music to shine through.

Two words of criticism--the cover for the box set has got to be THE WORST classical album cover I have ever seen--godawful Blake-meets-Stanley Kubrick garbage that belongs on an album of bad early-80s synthesiser music. AND--Amazon customers, be warned: I picked up this set at a local record store for $39.98 CANADIAN--that's $29.98 in the US at current coversion rates. Why is Amazon stiffing its customers by charging $55.00 US? This is supposed to be a bargain-basement set (as the bargain-basement cover will tell you). Please, Amazon, reprice this fine set now!

The Talich Quartet on the Calliope label play the Beethoven quartets with that distinguished old-world charm, full of warmth and relaxation, neatly unfussy and memorable by the radiant tone to which this ensemble has the solution. (Also read my fellow reviews appraisal.) The early quartets I enjoyed perhaps the most. They play all six quartets (Opus 18 no. 1-6) like they were just sitting around a fire place making music for the love of music. This can be said of all sixteen quartets really. The middle quartets (Op. 59 no. 1-3, Op. 74, Op. 95) hold up well against a lot of classic and modern versions, including the Vegh, Guarneri, Italian, Budapest and Emerson Quartets. I really thought the Talich version of Opus 59 no. 2 was perhaps the best I`ve ever heard. The late quartet performances (Op. 127, 130, 131, 132, 133 and 135) are fabulous as well, holding their own against the Busch, Budapest, Vegh, Guarneri, Italian, etc. The recordings are captured in a very fine, logically balanced analog recording. Finally, I wouldn't give up my other sets for only these interpretations, BUT if I were on that infamous desert island and could only have this set, I would be extremely happy to live out my days with this one.

There's no need for italics when playing Beethoven. The music will speak for itself just fine, and that's just the approach Talich has chosen. These guys are as good, technically speaking, as anybody but what stands out is how unassuming they are. None of that "look Ma, see how fast I can play" that we get from the Emersons. Anyway, this is the set for you. Yes, I've heard others -- Italiano, Budapest, Guarneri, and Tokyo -- and the Talich has them beat across the full cycle of 16.

I agree with the 4 earlier reviewers. I've listened to a number of other highly regarded performances, including those from the Italian, Emerson, and Lindsays, and the Talich Quartet are the best hands down. I think that it's possible to get a feel for some of the best performances by reading reviews, but the only way to find the best performance for you is to listen to them yourself. The samples on Amazon do help in that regard, and still better is to be able to sample longer passages at a book or music store, etc. You can hear extended excerpts from the Emerson String Quartet at the NPR Performance Today website. According to the experts at NPR, the Emerson are supposed to be the best, but for my 2 cents they are way too rushed, and the Talich blows them away. But do your own due diligence.

I really can't understand the previous comment about "period instruments". The instruments used for these interpretations ARE such:

Violin : Petr Messiereur (Peter Guarnerius, 1703)
Violin : Jan Kvapil (Laurentius Guadagnini, 1741)
Viola : Jan Talich (Laurentius Guadagnini, 1742)
Cello : Evzen Rattay (Stradivarius, 1690)

"Of course", this information is not available at the poor booklet that comes with the box.
I think this recording is one of the greatest around, right after the legendary Vlach and Vegh interpretations- which are, quite unfortunately, both rather poorly recorded.
This cycle is both finely recorded (analogue at its best) and fantastically interpreted- so it deserves 6 stars for the preformance and 2 stars for the package. The average does not sum up to 5, but I do give 5 stars, simply because a better compromise is simply impossible to find...

Deeply felt, warm interpretations of the most powerful music ever written. Together with Lindsay Quartet's first set, Vegh quartet's set from the seventies, Quartetto Italiano's set and of course Takacs quartet's recent set these are the recordings to have. You really have to hear them all because every one of them is special in it's own way.

Beethoven quartet op 131 is God's music. Listen to it very relaxed and then you will reach Nirvana. This Talich interpretation is the best one I've ever listened. Buy it with your eyes closed.

No doubt quite good interpretations. They are non the less also some of the most peculiar. That is perhaps partly due to the engineering, the ambience of the sound, but also to the playing style. This quartet sounds different from all other quartets I have ever heard. The bow on the strings often sounds very ugly, like somebody filing some metal. It is something feverish about it, at the same time something frail. It makes me think of sunshine stinging in the eyes. Suffice it to say that it is nothing fleshy about the sound of this quartet. Tempos are mostly brisk, the touch is light - in spite of the filing sound, which also can be described as a thin, withered, squeaky sound. Summa summarum: This quartet gives a so peculiar atmosphere to the Beethoven quartets that it is no point in comparing to other quartets, just as summer cannot feel like winter. This is summer. Summer heat, sultry, close, smoky, of barbeque or rubbish fire of withered leaves... I feel that these recordings are quite aristocratic, of very good taste, delicate, intimate. This has nothing to do with "old world", as both the Alban Berg quartet and Quartetto Italiano are (were?) "old world" and yet a far cry from Talich. I love to have this one in my collection, because it gives something not any other quartet gives.
Not my first choice, however, I would rather go for Taka'cs (op. 18), Taka'cs or Tokyo (middle quartets). To me, Tokyo rules when it comes to the late quartets, but that's me. I guess most people will prefer the Taka'cs quartet all the way, with the exception of the Quartetto Italiano congregation. Talich is something special, but very good as such.

The Talich quartet offers us music which is moving, sensitive and warm. The quartets of Beethoven in all their majesty...

The box of seven CDs is hailed by all music critics, and justly so!

A booklet briefly presents each work: history, influence and composition.

Here is a collection not to miss...