Bob Draper wrote:

>The Salomon's Haydn is top drawer in my view.  They do play every repeat
>though so I think one only gets two quartets per CD.

Bob's a man of fine taste.  Although the Salomon recordings were of
premium price, I don't regret the expenditures.  The Salomons were my first
exposure to Haydn's and Mozart's string quartets about 10-12 years ago, and
I loved them immediately.

Johann von Veen wrote:

>The problem of the Salomon Quartet is a lack of passion and emotion, and
>I believe that is mainly the problem of its primarius Simon Standage, who
>I have never liked precisely for that reason.

I don't find Standage's "restraint" harmful to the music at all.  The
Salomons provide a very "classical" approach which I prefer at times.
Other times, I go for the more expressive approach of the Mosaiques.
Someone mentioned the Esterhazy/Mozart recordings; that's another winner,
more expressive also than the Salomons.

I suppose that, in the long run, the Salomons' recordings will not have the
appeal of more recent period instrument recordings which are less different
from modern instrument accounts.  Still, when I'm in the mood for Haydn or
Mozart string quartets, I'm just as likely to select the Salomons as any
other string quartet, and I'm never disappointed.

Don Satz
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