Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Beethoven's SQs are in a Class of their Own......
Comment: Well let me tell you, Beethoven was a ground breaking composer in just about every category he composed in and his SQs are NO Exception. B amazes me with his twists and turns. B was a moody individual and his SQs reflect his personality. Everything here is exceptional. He pushes the limits and then pulls back the reigns and provides you with a heart wrenching slow mvt which melts you. There is something for everyone, he includes a full range of emotions.
The Op. 18 SQs are his starting point with an exclamation point. They are 4 mvt. Haydn style SQs, but seem to take you to a place where no one else was going. They are preludes to his Mid to Late SQs. In a way, I wish he would have written a few more of these sets before moving on, because they are exceptional.
From what I have read about B, he tirelessly researched his predecessors and found a new inventive prospective which they had not conceived. For instance, the Mid-SQs, Op. 59, 74, 95 move in an uncharted direction which no other composer was following at the time. The final mvt.s are mvt.s within mvt.s. Slow and fast passages all in the last movt. while keeping their listener appeal; only Beethoven can do this.
As for his late SQs, he seems to reach to the future and beyond. Think of all of those modern musicians who reached to the future or were or are ahead of their time. Well, B did that two centuries ahead of them. The late SQs are celebral leaps which serve as models to composers after him.
As for the recording and performance, the ABQ have made B's SQs their OWN!!! THERE IS NOTHING BETTER.
Customer Rating: Summary: VERY HIGH QUALITY RENDITION
Comment: All the performances on this set of the Beethoven String Quartets are of the highest quality. Particularly outstanding is the performance of Op 59 no 1
Intonation, expression, the ability of the players to meld together, and the dynamic range is all superb.
One small flaw (nothing to do with the playing)
In the very last track, the final movement of the B flat quartet (not the great fuge, but the movement Beethoven replaced it with), there is a continual flapping sound - I don't know where it came from, but it is very irritating, and I'm surprised that EMI let it through.
