Zack writes:

>I would greatly appreciate recommendations for recordings of the Beethoven
>quartets, particularly the late quartets.  I have been living for years
>with the early-sixties stereo performances of the Budapest quartet, and for
>whatever reason have never been able to find my way into this music.

I have broken into the soundworld of the late quartets by way of
Bernstein'senna Philharmonic renditions, (people on the list are going
to scream, but don't listen to them!), where the full body of strings tends
to bring out some of the beautiful counterpoint of the original quartets by
lending clarity to the inner voices.

The most notably beautiful moments for me occur in the first mov't of
the Csharp minor quartet about four minutes in--absolutely stunning
pathos--however my ear misses something when presented with only the four
instruments.

Tom Davey forbade me to sell back my Cleveland Quartet set, but I have
to tell you that they've been collecting dust since I discovered the
Bernstein/Mitropoulos arrangements.

John "blasphemer" Smyth