Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, The Lindsays, Lindsays String Quartet :: Beethoven: String Quartets, Vol. 8

Sublime

noeton | Pennsylvania | 09/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This work by Beethoven is itself a unique gem, and this recording gives rare justice to its sublime secrets. I speak of course of the opus 132. The 104 is fine too. This entire new cycle by the Lindsays is worth every penny. The recordings are first rate, warm and precisely balanced. From players to engineers these discs have been made with love. They are up front, but this merely gives one an intimate view of every subtlety offered by this remarkable ensemble. I've the previous cycles by them as well. The second is quite good, but the new one truly excels. With the 132 the contrasts in approach are clearly drawn. The second cycle's 132 has great verve and is wonderful, but with the new the players have adopted a more sober and mature approach that contains a certain repose and dignity appropriate to the composition. The Heiliger Dankgesang bursts with a charmingly sweet joy you will not find elsewhere. This is a very exceptional musical offering that cannot be more fully praised."

And You Wonder Why I Call Myself "Lover of German Music"?

Ralph J. Steinberg | New York, NY United States | 03/25/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I won't mince any words here. My love for the now sadly-defunct Lindsays has evolved into fanatical hero-worship, of the order of my worship of Artur Schnabel, Paul Lewis, and Wilhelm Furtwaengler. I am now an avid collector of the Lindsays, with the A-minor Quartet of Beethoven the most recent purchase to which I have listened. Outside of the great Capet Quartet recording on Opus Kura (a MUST, by the way), The Lindsays are the only ones to reveal the crucial central movement, entitled "Heiliger Dankgesang" by the composer, in all its glory. For the first time, the opening theme is really INTELLIGIBLE to me, owing to the Lindsays taking it at just the right tempo, not too fast as to destroy its unearthly spirituality, but also not too slow so that the notes, most of them half-notes, sound disconnected from each other. I am now thinking that this Adagio just might be the greatest slow movement ever created. As for the rest of the Quartet, the Lindsays find more passion and impulse than do others that I have heard (so what else is new?). The old Budapest from the 1940's, now deleted by Sony, is bland and businesslike and no match for the Lindsays. All this leads to why I have titled the review as I did: Can any music match that which emanated from Germany? And for that matter, in turn, can any other GERMAN composer (Bach, Brahms, Wagner, even Mozart) hold as much as a candle to Beethoven? NO! One old friend, commenting on my changing loves in music, said: "You used to think that Wagner was the world!" I replied: "Yes, and Wagner is still the world for me, but BEETHOVEN IS THE UNIVERSE!""