Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. 1. Maestoso - Allegro
2. 2. Adagio ma non troppo e molto cantabile
3. 3. Scherzando vivace
4. 4. Finale
5. 1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
6. 2. Allegro molto vivace
7. 3. Allegro moderato
8. 4. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile - Più mosso - Andante moderato e lusinghiero - Adagio - Allegretto - Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice - Allegretto
9. 5. Presto
10. 6. Adagio quasi un poco andante
11. 7. Allegro

Disc 2:

1. 1. Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro
2. 2. Presto
3. 3. Andante con moto ma non troppo. Poco scherzando
4. 4. Alla danza tedesca (Allegro assai)
5. 5. Cavatina ( Adagio molto espressivo)
6. 6. Finale (Allegro)
7. 1. Allegretto
8. 2. Vivace
9. 3. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo
10. 4. Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß (Grave - Allegro - Grave ma non troppo tratto - Allegro)

Disc 3:

1. 1. Assai sostenuto - Allegro
2. 2. Allegro ma non tanto
3. 3. Canzona di ringraziamento offerta alla divinità da un guarito, in modo lidico (Molto adagio) - Sentendo nuova forza (Andante)
4. 4. Alla marcia, assai vivace - Più allegro - Presto
5. 5. Allegro appassionato
6. Overtura (Allegro) - Meno mosso e moderato - Allegro - Fuga

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29983 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-21
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 215 minutes

Customer Reviews

Art miracles
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 of op.131, and the fearful resignation of the slow movement of op.135.

Since the dawning of his first 'late' style, Beethoven had been concerned with old Baroque and Renaissance techniques - fugual texture in particular. He continues the trend in this, his second 'late' period. The fugue that opens op.131 is a masterpiece in continuity and expressive depth. The 'Grosse Fugue' of op.131 was dismissed as incomprehensible in its day, and was in fact deleted from the work by the composer. When one becomes familiar with it however, one is able to see it as the mircale of order and imagination that it is. Also in op.132 he writes a piece in the old Lydian mode, harking back to the church composers of the 16th Century.

These performances are exceptionally well-rehearsed, refined and neat. They always strike a good balance of control and expressivemness. Maybe one should start with this recording as an idea of the pure essence of these pieces, and then perhaps then explore others which maybe indulge more freely with Beethoven's unusual markings.

Peerless
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.

Amazing playing, amazing recording
The Quartetto Italiano's Phillips recordings of the Beethoven late quartets, made in the late 1960s and beautifully remastered here, are just amazing. I have quite a lot of string quartets on CD, and these are by far my favourite disks. The playing is fantastic (of course--as other reviewers routinely point out, they were the best), but it's the texture of the recorded sound which really makes this for me. A lot of quartets these days make records that sound overly engineered: too much room reverb, artificially wide dynamic range, etc. It's as if, in trying to sex up the sound, the engineers end up achieving the opposite effect. What I love about the Italiano's Phillips sound is the dry, natural acoustic (which probably takes a lot of engineering skill to achieve, but sounds as if you are just sitting in the room with them). There are plenty of rough edges when required, and also incredible sweetness. This is one of those disks which makes you appreciate how much more satisfying analogue recordings can be.
I'm not going to review the pieces, but their fame is justified, and if you enjoy quartets but don't know these ones, you really should. This set used to be available in the Duo series, in two volumes, i.e. on four disks: what Phillips have done here is remaster at a higher sample rate, and shuffle the pieces round to fit on to 3 CDs. The only complaint could be that the Great Fugue really belongs at the end of the B-flat quartet, as an alternative finale, and its position on a different disk makes this awkward. But cutting the package down from 4 to 3 disks means you get the whole thing for the price of one full-price album. This means the deal is unbeatable: the best recordings that exist of these great pieces, all at a budget price.