Search - Johannes Brahms, Quatuor Ludwig :: Brahms: String Quartets, Op. 51

Excellent string playing, mediocre recording

C.D. Wexler | 10/18/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains two very beautiful Brahms string quartets played extremely well by a French group. While not underplaying the drama in these works, the Ludwig Quartet brings out Brahms as a composer of lieder. These performances sing with a delightful freshness not found in more aggressive performances. Their playing has many moments of radiant beauty. Although the recording has too much reverberation, the string playing is so good that I regularly listen to this CD and put up with the mediocre sound."

Warm

David Saemann | 08/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Naxos has a knack for choosing fine groups to record the chamber music literature. The Quatuor Ludwig are every bit as good as those other Naxos stalwarts, the Kodaly and Eder Quartets. The Ludwig have what might be described as a French string sound. It is not as heavy as that of the Guarneri and Julliard Quartets, nor is it as vibrato laden as that of the Quartetto Italiano. The Ludwig's sound is very pleasing, and their balance and articulation is excellent. They have all the serious credentials needed for interpreting the Brahms Quartets. My favorite moment on the disc is the third movement of the 1st Quartet. Here, the Ludwig create a limpid sound world in which the contrasting elements of the movement are sensitively captured and flow entirely naturally. Natural sounding phrasing is not an easy thing to achieve in the Brahms Quartets, but the Ludwig have it down pat. My only reservation about this CD concerns the sound engineering. It is distant sounding and full of echo. The details of the scores sometimes are obscured or are out of balance, in spite of the excellent projection of the players. Still, Brahms string playing this good does not grow on trees, and listeners may feel that the detrimental aspects of this CD are worth putting up with for the excellent performances."