CD-Charts Position 1
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Fauré; Debussy; Ravel - String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Ébène Quartet

Release Date October 06, 2008
This has been eagerly awaited after hearing the Ebene perform the Debussy and the Ravel live at this summer's Salzburg Festival. They are a young group of musicians who also appear on the European jazz scene. This brings to their playing a buzz which may be linked to their ability to improvise freely. However, when playing these pieces there is a discipline evident in their interpretation as well. Hear also their interpretation of the first three Barok Quartets and subline live recordings of Haydn.

CD-Charts Position 2
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Schubert: The Last Four Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Quartetto Italiano

Release Date May 05, 1995
These three quartets are the best that Schubert wrote and can compare with anything written by anyone at any time. Also here is the glorious 'Quartettsatz'. The Quartetto Italiano could justly claim to be one the three or four best string quartets in the world in their time, and Phillips always did them proud, so really there is nothing but excellence here. The Italians' approach is measured and very sonorous, everything is bang in tune (this is not something that can be taken for granted, even with the most stellar quartets), and it seems to me that they plumb the depths here. The opening of the G Major Quartet, arguably the greatest of the three (and the least often played), is just mesmeric - that whispery violin figure above the tremolando, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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The Essential Borodin

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
from: Double Decca

Release Date January 12, 1998
These three quartets are the best that Schubert wrote and can compare with anything written by anyone at any time. Also here is the glorious 'Quartettsatz'. The Quartetto Italiano could justly claim to be one the three or four best string quartets in the world in their time, and Phillips always did them proud, so really there is nothing but excellence here. The Italians' approach is measured and very sonorous, everything is bang in tune (this is not something that can be taken for granted, even with the most stellar quartets), and it seems to me that they plumb the depths here. The opening of the G Major Quartet, arguably the greatest of the three (and the least often played), is just mesmeric - that whispery violin figure above the tremolando, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Shostakovich - Complete String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Borodin Qt, State Prokofiev Quartet

Release Date October 16, 2006
I agree with the other reviewer. There are too many superlatives that one could use to review this set. The music is made to sound both ravishing and frightening. These performances are among the very best that are available on recorded format, if not THE very best, and are something of a reference work because the Borodins worked so closely with Shostakovich throughout his life, and the composer shared many exclusive insights with them. In fact, the Borodins frequently performed Shostakovich's Piano Quintet with Shostakovich himself at the piano, and there was a very famous concert that they all gave of that work in Gorky in 1964 which was the composer's last public peformance as a pianist. People in the audience cried, hugged each other and held ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Debussy; Dutilleux; Ravel - String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Belcea Quartet

Release Date February 05, 2001
This review must, I suppose, serve two purposes. If on the one hand you do not know the Ravel or Debussy string quartets, buy this cd immediately. This is music of the highest quality, written by composers at the height of their powers, which demonstrates their unique gifts for melody and colour.

For those who might be comparing different discs, then I can make the same recommendation as above, and without the slightest reservation. The Belcea Quartet are one of the most talented new groups performing this repertoire, and they are rapidly establishing themselves as serious competition for the older and more famous groups out there. This is an excellent performance.

CD-Charts Position 6
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Bartók - String Quartets Nos 1-6

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
from: EMI Classics

Release Date January 21, 2008
The Belcea Quartet are excellent in the six Bartok String Quartets. Precise, but not too much so (as with the Emersons, whose DG recording is, alas, over-rated in my opinion), but with a hefty dose of local flavour. There are many superlative sets of these works, which repay repeated hearings as well as anything, and are on a level with the Beethoven quartets. Alternative recordings equally worth considering include the Tokyo (DG), the Takacs (Decca, but also their earlier Hungaroton recording, albeit with a different line-up), the Vegh (Naive), the Keller (Warner), and the Vermeer (Naxos). This one is up there with the very best, and I say this despite approaching it with a foolish prejudice, that such a young group couldn't get to the very heart ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Beethoven: String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Alban Berg Quartett

Release Date October 18, 1999
I would only hear Beethoven's chamber works on the radio, fleeting moments when I would not concentrate on the music. I guess Beethoven's symphonies have put his chamber music in the shadows. I bought this box set to set aside some time to find out more about this composer's genius. I was not disappointed, these quartets gave me access to the mind of a man with intense emotions and powerful intellect. The symphonies were mere pyrotechnic displays of a showman; but these quartets were something completely different, they were intimate, human and full of loving kindness. Beethoven the humanitarian is clearly at work here and he invites you to occupy this world. The Alban Berg Quartet's is marvellous, I play these again and again. I play them at home ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Beethoven: Complete String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Quartetto Italiano

Release Date November 11, 1996
This incredible music is available on numerous recordings. Some are good e.g. Busch, Lindsay. But none compare to those of the Italian Quartet. It is hard to believe that this recording of this music could ever be surpassed.

CD-Charts Position 9
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Schubert: String Quintet in C

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Mstislav Rostropovich

Release Date July 08, 1992
This incredible music is available on numerous recordings. Some are good e.g. Busch, Lindsay. But none compare to those of the Italian Quartet. It is hard to believe that this recording of this music could ever be surpassed.

CD-Charts Position 10
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Beethoven: The Late String Quartets

CD-Charts > Music > String Quartets
by: Ludwig van Beethoven, Quartetto Italiano

Release Date May 21, 2001
These 5 quartets are perhaps the greatest pieces of music yet written. Beethoven creates a wholly new style which is both firmly rooted in the characters of the various string instruments, and yet totally unique. It is as though he is seeing things through a coloured lens - reds, browns, purples, blacks - everything tinted and low-lit. He also experiments with tonality in new ways - juxtaposing keys in unusual ways that, in fact, relate to melodic motifs, and introducing what has been called a 'rogue' dissonant bassline.

They contain the composer's most moving slow movements - the consoling Cavatina of op.130, which moved Beethoven himself to tears, the evocative painting-like variation theme of op.127, the tragedy of the penultimate movement ... Read More: