My favourite performances aregh, Lasalle, Cleveland, and Capet!  I
actually heard Lasalle and Cleveland playing Beethoven inTokyo.  I love
Amadeus and Musikverein quartets best as quartets in general.  But, as
performer of Beethoven quartets, I admire the above four.  I don't like
Alban Berg.  I heard twice in Tokyo.  Their playing was superb, but sounded
like iron.  I hardly believed their sound came from strings.  I t came, as
I felt, from supernatural strings.  I love Beethoven made of wood.  Their
other performances, say, of Brahms are goo, and Sextets with Amadeus
members are my favourites.

Cleveland was (as they were disbanded) to me the most beautiful performance
of all the playing of Beethoven quartets.  I've never heard Italian Quartet
nor Lenner (!) in the concert hall.  I was trully enchanted with mellow
sound of them.  On the other hand, Lasalle was impressive with tranparent
texture and fluidity.  It might be an unusual kind of Beethoven.  I wonder
why I admire their performances.  I cannot tell the reason why.  But, it's
certain I love and miss their performance.

On record or CD,gh is the most impressive one.  The balance of four
voices is ideal and sounds like one entity.

I heard Budapest (mono, stereo), Barylli, Busch, Lenner, Hungary, Smetana,
Julliard (stereo and digital), Italian, Berlin, Gewandthaus, Melos, Tokyo,
and Emerson on the disk besides the above mentioned.  The experience on the
disk depends largely on the character of equipment.  I've never got the
heavenly happiness from Cleveland's CD's on my equipment.  I am working
every night to reproduce those past happiness and find another unknown one.
I expect new exitement coming from unknown disks to me (both old and new).
Sorry for mistyping.

Kazuo Takada
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