In Reply to: I can answer your query... posted by krisjan on January 10, 2016 at 14:19:32:
Hey -thanks for your directness. So here I am without an Auden wit
But still abhors the place where critics sit.
An abridged reply: A view of the Emerson and the Tokyo as groups that never risk anything both on the concert stage and in their recordings, of Beethoven. Both are in in the academic tradition of the Julliard Quartet and the Julliard school. Fairly sterile. Every performance neatly packaged. I admire the Takacs greatly but the extroverted and dynamic playing of Opus 18 through the Opus 59's do not work with the late quartets. I do not know the Vermeer.
Two other groups that get the dynamics right and almost the spirituality is the Lasalle and the Smetana, The Amadeaus Quartet has the problem of the first violin in the late quartets(gypsy sound) as to make them unacceptable.
Dynamics and spirituality is the point of Opus 132 not a metronomic calculation that aims at bringing the architecture together.
Worse than even intonation problems, the Concord actually plays out of tune.So what! But so does the Busch(could be the transfers).
The Concord Quartet understands the concept of dissonance and the rhythmical tonal possibilities and textures that the score allows and encourages. The problem of the first violinist did not show up on the Magneplanar speakers but does risk 'schmalz'
So we disagree I have heard four of the groups you mentioned live in NYC in their Beethoven Cycles.(passed on the Vermeer.) The live 'crazed' playing of the Concord(with the mad violist) offered me the most . Hardly the Quartet Italiano in its perfection and elegance but then nothing is.
This is not a rebuttal but only another opinion. Hope some others on the site weigh in. Cheers!
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Follow Ups
- RE: I can answer your query... - Utley1 15:43:25 01/10/16 (16)
- "Worse than even intonation problems, the Concord actually plays out of tune." - oldmkvi 07:32:27 01/12/16 (0)
- ". . . the Concord actually plays out of tune. So what!" - Chris from Lafayette 12:13:00 01/11/16 (9)
- RE: The Italiano - goldenthal 15:35:50 01/24/16 (0)
- " I wouldn't be too quick to defend out-of-tune playing" - oldmkvi 07:34:38 01/12/16 (0)
- RE: ". . . the Concord actually plays out of tune. So what!" - Utley1 12:50:15 01/11/16 (6)
- I have the Fine Arts Everest LP sets... - briggs 09:22:05 01/12/16 (4)
- RE: I have the Fine Arts Everest LP sets... - Utley1 10:50:44 01/12/16 (3)
- Fine Arts Quartet -- and a Pleasant Surprise - briggs 13:34:24 01/12/16 (2)
- RE: Fine Arts Quartet -- and a Pleasant Surprise - Utley1 13:52:48 01/12/16 (0)
- RE: Fine Arts Quartet -- and a Pleasant Surprise - Utley1 13:41:31 01/12/16 (0)
- Strange - I never did hear any of the Fine Arts Quartet performances [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 21:26:27 01/11/16 (0)
- I think it's entirely a matter of personal taste, but FWIW ... - rbolaw 16:08:42 01/10/16 (4)
- RE: I think it's entirely a matter of personal taste, but FWIW ... - Utley1 16:19:38 01/10/16 (3)
- Whoops. - rbolaw 17:28:58 01/10/16 (2)
- Nobody mentioned the Cleveland Qt on Telarc CD. nt - oldmkvi 10:32:13 01/12/16 (1)
- Another set I missed - has it held up well? [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 15:23:01 01/12/16 (0)