Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The String Quartets

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Beethoven's String Quartets always seem to puzzle yet fascinate me. I guess that's because his own musical maturity can be seen so starkly through each of his quartets, as they can all be grouped so easily into his early (Op. 18), middle (Opp. 59, 74, 95), and late period styles (Opp. 127, 130-133, 135).

Frankly, I think the Amadeus Quartet perfectly captures the pure essence of Beethoven's musical genius and emotional spirit in these recordings. As can be expected, the late quartets stand out prominently among the rest, and I find the Amadeus interpretations of these late quartets almost tear-jerking at some points, e.g. the slow movements of Op. 130 and 132; the slow movement of the Op. 132 quartet has to be the saddest, loneliest music I've ever heard. The Razumovsky Quartets show a particularly energetic life of their own (although Amadeus could have picked up the pace a little bit with the first Razumovsky), and the Op. 18 Quartets are quite charming. I must say, I have to give kudos to Amadeus for pulling off the Grosse Fuge as good as it did. From seeing the Grosse Fuge performed live already, to say that it is difficult to play would probably be a masterpiece of understatement.

But overall, these recordings are well worth it; you won't be disappointed.

Many years ago I listened to the LPs of the Late Quartets by the Amadeus Quartet and was enthralled by their lyricism and awesome technical dexterity. I have since brought recordings of a later period - the Late Quartets of the Juillard Quartet -CDs - which was a recording especially made for the Library of Congress ca. 1993. And recently, after a long search on the web, but ending with Amazon.com, I bought the 7-CD DG Collectors Set of the Amadeus Quartet. What a marvel of reproduction and beauty of sound. The Juilliard set is, as remarked by other reviwers, too technical and too abstruse, devoid of those glorius melodic strains that reach deep into the mind and heart at the same time. Besides, learning the story of how the Amadeus Group was formed, added to the enjoyment of the music. Highly Recommnded.

I carefully compared the Amadeus set with the Quartetto Italiano ones, which i acquired years ago and always treasure as one of my best music collections.

Go to Amadeus! Italiano was kindly entertaining listeners with beautiful sound and rich mood while the structural dynamics and nerve of the music istself were buried.

Italiano's interpretation is colorful but less profound and penetrating. Amadeus gets it!

First I disagree with those who claim that these are played without heart. While often seen in reviews of classical music, I find this sort of argument pretty lame. What is the appropriate amount of heart? Well it differs from listener to listener. You can always find someone who claims Beethoven is boring compared to Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky, who have more "heart" (on their sleeves). At various times in your life you might find that performances that had a lot of heart now seem too melodramatic for your taste (or vice versa). If you check through the various reviews for this set you see some claim these recordings are too melodramatic, others wince that they lack heart. I don't think any one set of recordings of Beethoven's String Quartet repertoire can adequately sum them up for all people at all times. I have heard multiple other versions (Busch, Budapest (live and studio), Cleveland, Italiano, Emerson, Juilliard, Tokyo, Alban Berg...) and I think the Amadeus hits a nice balance of the intellectual/structural and emotive sides of Beethoven. Favorite versions differ from movement to movement of individual quartets, even one's subjective mood. Even if the versions by Vegh, Lindsays, Talich, and Italiano carry a lot of prestige, I have read some highly credible critiques that make strong cases for their shortcomings. This is certainly a nice starter set for those wanting to hear them all on a budget. As for the purely subjective side, I prefer them in the early quartets, in some of the later ones (op 127) they seem to lack some of the spontaneity I enjoy in versions such as those by the Budapest. Yet in the Cavatina (op 130) or Heiliger Dankgesang (op 132) their lies plenty to scald the heart. I'll still be hanging onto my Budapest and Busch recordings, though.

As for the recorded sound: Yes, this may not be the most immaculate HiFi recording out there, but I think most will have little problem with it. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little audio fidelity in lieu of a valuable performance. Others might have even more chagrin with the esteemed performances of the Busch and Budapest Quartets, made a lot earlier than these recordings. What about legendary performances by Pablo Casals, Schnabel, Furtwangler? Should we ignore them because they aren't up to modern standards? Will today's modern standard be upended by a future modern standard?

The packaging: Personally, I love the current trend of cardboard sleeves instead of jewel boxes. You have to be a little more careful, but they save a lot of shelf space. Plus, a lot of old jewel boxes see the "teeth" that hold the disc in place eventually break, allowing the disc to rattle around inside the case and get much more scratched than a disc sometimes gets in a really stiff cardboard sleeve (this set has soft paper sleeves). With paper sleeves one should take note to put the playing side of the disc away from the less flat part of the sleeve that has the glue and folded ends.

I grew up listening to many different recordings of this acclaimed Beethoven Cycle. I have admired Alban Berg Quartet (live EMI), Tokyo String Quartet and Guarneri Quartet recordings, but the warmth of the Amadeus Quartet sound in this recording and their interpretation is truly astonishing. I recommend this to anyone who really wants to understand the depth and complexity of possibly Beethoven best compositions.

...this would have to be it. I have the vinyl set, and haven't heard the CDs, so can't really comment on some of the criticisms of sound, etc. However, it seems to me that the Amadeus Quartet purely & simply play what is written, without loads of "pulling it around" or "emotion" or whatever you'd like to call it - maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but as far as I'm concerned it must be close to what Beethoven imagined. Give me this any day, rather than recordings which have the players' personalities stamped deep into the music. This is as close to heaven on earth as you'll get!

I don't know how Deutsche Grammophon does it! When I buy one of their Collector's Editions, I'm always 100% satisfied! Here, we have vintage, beautiful sounding recordings of Beethoven's complete String Quartets, all encapsulated in one little shell box! The playing is taut and uplifting, and the music is simply transcendant. I DARE you to listen to this music and not have it bring your mood to a complete beautiful high. The late quartets are a lot more eerie and avant-garde (well, for Beethoven's time), but even those will amaze and excite you to no end. This is THE set to buy! It's just as good, if not BETTER than the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet's cycle, and HALF the price! Treat yourself to a true musical adventure and check out this set right away!

This is an affordable reissue of the Amadeus Quartet's classic recordings of the complete Beethoven string quartets. The music is essential to any collection of chamber music, and the performances of the late quartets, perhaps the finest string quartets ever written, are beautifully done. The performance of the A minor Quartet (opus 132) is especially moving. The quality of the recording is quite good for a budget-priced reissue, and the interpretations of the music by the Amadeus Quartet are outstanding.

This is a good slimeline set at a good price, but it does have its drawbacks. First of all, forget it if you're very interested in concentrating on the early (Op. 18) works. These are forgettable, overly-driven performances. The slow movements in particular are let down--just listen to their 18/1, for example!! Some of the spiritual late quartets are also let down here. Particularly the Cavatina of the B-Flat is glossed over somewhat. The movement reportedly made the composer himself shed tears...I'd be hard-pressed to imagine him doing so over this version. To hear this quartet performed with emotional conviction (if not necessarily the utmost in technical accuracy) hear the Busch Quartet, or better yet, the Lindsays.

But enough of the shortcomings. Among the highlights are a very fine Op. 131, with a superb theme and variations. Their pizzicato and ponticello effects in the wild scherzo are a joy. And the middle quartets get what may be the best workout I've ever heard, especially the three Rasumovksy quartets. Their Op. 59/1 is my favorite, and the other two are pretty spectacular as well, with great energy and spirit. (Tey sound like they're discovering these works for the first time as they play them for you.) The pizzicato in the "Harp" quartet is extraordinary and another highlight. Some like their "clarifying" or smooth approach to the Grosse Fugue, and while it has its advantages (if you need to study just how this fugue is put together, this is your recording) I'll still return most often to the Lindsays for their rip-roaring intensity and feeling that they're making it up on the spot.

So this set is very fine, though not quite desert island, except for the middle quartets. I still recommend many other sets--Fine Arts for Op. 18, Lindsays and to some extent the Veghs for middle and (especially) late, as well as selected recordings by the Budapest (their live Library of Congress performances mostly), and Busch, Takács and Talich. Really, these works are so enormous in scope that no one set can contain them. We're lucky we have so many choices. Sound is very fine and leans towards "bright," and belies the recordings' age.

I recently rented a copy of this set from the library just to see how the Amadeus quartet managed it...I have some of their other recordings, including their Brahms chamberworks survey, the complete Mozart quartets, selections of Haydn's late quartets, and a great version of Dvorak's "American". Having thoroughly enjoyed their playing on these other discs, I figured it couldn't hurt to sample their Beethoven. Well, I should have known better...I disliked this set for the exact same reasons I enjoyed their work with Mozart and Haydn - the performances felt overly smooth and overall lacking in terms of feeling. A great example of this would be the opening movement of Op. 130, at about the 1min. mark, when the allegro kicks in - it just sounds calculated and contrived to me.

I feel this way about a lot of sections (Op. 59 no. 3, finale, Op. 59 no. 2 Scherzo, Op. 74 intro, many of the late quartets) - similarly to my criticisms of Quartetto Italiano - where the overly glossy sheen detracts from the inherent conflict in the works, especially in the middle quartets. That being said, this approach really helps for the 6 quartets Op. 18, these actually being the best renditions I've heard.

One positive note amidst my criticisms: Beethoven's musical architecture is clearly audible here and very transparent (unlike Italiano, who sacrifice symmetry in favor of warm, genial sound). Still, if you are buying this set for the famous Middle and Late quartets, there are numerous better options available to you: the Takacs quartet (amazing), Talich quartet (a great budget set-really a great set at any price), Alban Berg (a tour-de-force in technique) and the Lindsay quartet (not as techincally sound, but warm & passionate readings).

A note about recording quality: not great. The lead violin is at times obnoxiously whiny and overbearing, and the cello is very quiet, though still audible.

To sum up - these performances are a good example of the polished, smooth performances of the 50s - 60s, and are a good reference as such. But other ensembles have had far more insightful approaches to these masterworks than the Amadeus quartet did, such as the Budapest quartet readings (also older recordings). Not bad as a budget set, but there are better alternatives out there.