 | | |
| Beethoven - The Complete String Quartets / Alban Berg Quartet | 
 enlarge
| Artists: Ludwig Van Beethoven, Alban Berg Quartet, Gerhard Schulz, Hatto Beyerle, Thomas Kakuska, Valentin Erben Guenther Pichler
Label: EMI Classics
Category: Music
List Price: $46.98
Buy New: $28.22
You Save: $18.76 (40%)
Buy New/Used from $23.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (30 reviews)
Sales Rank: 8763
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 7
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5.1 x 0.9
MPN: 73606
UPC: 724357360623
EAN: 0724357360623
ASIN: B000026D4J
Release Date: November 16, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 What sound problems???? November 13, 2006
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am only writing this review in dispute of RB Townsend remarks below.
I have been listening to this mostly Live set for a few years now on high end Audiophile equipment and notice NO problems with sound at all.
It is clear, clean, crisp, transparent and rich with no "glare" at all.
if it is "well lit", this would suit Beethoven's strings perfectly.
An absolutely stunning performance with a Superb sound stage and sound.
All the other reviewers and the buyers who agree with their assessments (a hundred of them) can't be wrong.
With all due respect, Perhaps Mr. Townsend is listening to this on an Aiwa bookshelf System. Perhaps.
 Fine performance but sound problems November 10, 2006
19 out of 30 found this review helpful
I wonder if the reviewer who said "the tone, oh god, the tone" were not remembering a concert rather than this set of discs because, good as the performances are, they are not well-served by the sound. Harsh and over-bright is not the least of it. Every time the first violin plays forte above the staff the sound becomes piercing and unpleasant. I have heard the Alban Berg quartet play Beethoven in Salzburg in the 80s (when these were recorded) and they did NOT sound like this. I suspect the problem might be the early digital technology which, at first, had the reputation of being harsh. The cello is also not well-served as it tends to be obscured.
As for the performances, while perhaps not definitive (and who could give a definitive performance of all these?), they are certainly excellent. The Alban Berg quartet are true masters, but not lacking in a sense of humor. I had the good fortune to be able to sit in on a rehearsal in Salzburg once when they were working on Beethoven. Sitting in the back was one of the string professors from the Mozarteum. After working on an octave passage in one of the minuets for a while and ALMOST getting it perfectly in tune the first violinist glanced at the Salzburgian sitting in back and said "gut genug fur Salzburg!" (good enough for Salzburg!)
The Alban Berg quartet, of course, teach in Vienna.
Two Beethoven cycles from the Alban Berg--which one is better? March 14, 2006
74 out of 80 found this review helpful
Founded in 1971, the Alban Berg Quartet of Vienna was the dominant ensemble in the quartets of Mozart and Beethoven for two decades. Such was their pre-eminence that EMI recorded two complete Beethoven cycles with them over the span of less than five years. The first was made in the studio in 1985, the second was recorded live at the Mozart Saal in Vienna in 1989--since the latter contains applause, it's obvious which is which upon hearing htem. But online stores like Amazon, Tower, and Crotchet do not distinguish between the two. The one pictured herer is the studio cycle.
By general consensus the live recordings are warmer and freer in interpretation, the studio ones being noticeably more tightly controlled and polished. Virtually every critic prefers the 1989 cycle, which indeed is probably the best from the post-Budapest Quartet era (even surpassing the virtuosic Takacs and Emerson cycles of the last decade by combining intensity, genuine Viennese style, and sheer technical ease). I've bought both cycles and can attest that EMI's digital sound from 1985 is edgy and over-bright, making it impossible to listen comoftably at real-life volume levels, while the 1989 concert readings are in excellent sound, adding yet another reason to acquire the later set.
The orange-jacket Red Line series, offered a sisngle CD at a time, is from 1985 and should be avoided. The "Great Recordings of the Century" set of the late quartets, with a photo of the four members of the Alban Berg on the cover, is from the live 1989 cycle. the only missing link is the possibility that the pictured box set here has been remastered, which the 1985 cyle certainly deserves.
 Great music - quality control problem with CDs December 30, 2005
16 out of 34 found this review helpful
These are wonderful renditions of these Quartets. I had worn out my records and finally decided it was time to get a CD version of this fantastic music. The first thing that came as a surprise was when Disk Number 4 would not load into Itunes on my Mac. I was able to get it to work on my Wife's PC and copy it onto a new CD and get past the problem that way, but it seemed odd my MAC could not read this disk. Then I discovered all the tracks on each disk are mislabeled after the first quartet. This meant manually correcting each entry on every disk (7 of them) which was labor intensive. I love the music but any potential buyer who purchases these with the intention of loading them into their IPOD should be aware of this quality control problem.
The Top Cycle September 18, 2005
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
This set is one of those opportunities to get in on wonderful performances at a great price. I had to weigh in because I was surprised to find some less than stellar reviews of this set- one reviewer below actually wrote a review for a completely different recording, giving this one 3 stars not even having heard it.
I found this set unerringly well recorded, unmistakably well played, and all together a great deal- 7 full length quality recordings of the greatest string quartets ever written for less than $45! There are performances that are as good (for example, check the Quatuor Mosaiques readings of the Op. 18 for a great sounding period performance take), and those are certainly collectable for the die-hard or purist, but I have yet to find a complete set of the Beethoven quartets that I would give a higher recommendation than this one.
** Update 2.6.06 - the Takacs Quartet Beethoven cycle (though so far only issued as three separate multi-disc packages) is well worth the time of anyone interested in these works, albeit at a much higher total price.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |
