Walter Meyer wrote: >... The well respected music critic B.H. Haggin, who admittedly was >occasionally eccentric and always outspoken in his opinions, but who >was a fan of the Budapest String Quartet, described these performances, >contrasted with the earlier ones to which you refer, as having undergone >a "deterioration in tone and intonation and even in the treatment of the >music [that] reached the point where the playing was not only musically >unsatisfying but unpleasant to listen to." That sounds a tad harsh but compared to the earlier recordings they are a disappointment indeed as are the *middle quartets*. But then the forties recordings are almost unsurpassable IMO. I am referring to the Columbia recordings here. I didn't even know there was such a thing as an earlier recording (thet one on Bridge). Is this available somewhere in whatever medium? Philip