Doris Howe:

>It is a very strange thing I have experienced lately.  String Quartets-
>or any ensemble devoid of piano- have always set my teeth - and senses-
>on edge.  But included in the CD of the music from the series "Band of
>Brothers", is part of Beethoven's String Quartet in C Sharp minor, op.131,
>shown being played by musicians in the town, in the part about finding the
>Camp, and I now find myself listening instead of turning such things off
>when they are on the radio.  Not yet listening to a whole quartet, but my
>ears - or heart- are tuning in.

That is the first quartet I learned to really admire also.  In my case
I had suffered a corneal abrasion, which is a more exhausting accident
than one might suspect, and a housemate happened to have a set of the
Beethoven quartets played by the Budapest Quartet--which nobody has
mentioned here, so I assume they are not currently available, a great pity
if so.  I had never particularly cared for the sound of a quartet, though
I made an exception for a few bars from the Borodin quartet which a local
radio station used as a theme for its Sunday morning show.  Anyway, I spent
about four days collapsed on a couch listening to these quartets.  The c#
minor stood out, not only among the quartets but as one of Beethoven's
finest achievements.

Jim Tobin