[ Aeon / CD ]
Release Date: Monday 26 September 2011
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
"This is a disc that makes one want to hear the Brentanos in the other late Beethoven quartets. Anyone who fancies this generous coupling need not hesitate." Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine, March 2012
"What is so satisfying about these performances recorded at Princeton University is the overall warmth of the playing, with speeds ideally chosen and never forced, with natural rubato and shading, and with wonderfully sustained pianissimos...This is a disc that makes one want to hear the Brentanos in the other late Beethoven quartets. Anyone who fancies this generous coupling need not hesitate." Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine, March 2012
"This was Beethoven breaking new ground with the first of what he categorized as his 'late' quartets [Op. 127]. The Brentano Quartet tries to emphasize the shock...It is an understandable approach, but it does sound rather overdone...The Brentanos seem more naturally at home with the great C sharp minor Quartet...It is a splendidly conceived and splendidly executed performance." International Record Review, February 2012
Founded in 1992, the New York-based Brentano Quartet is known for its interpretations combining perfect technique and matchless musicality. Those qualities are even more obvious in this series of late Beethoven quartets with this first volume bringing together the Op. 127 and 131. This pure crystal of intelligence and brilliance will doubtless constitute a milestone.
String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major, Op. 127
String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131