Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Tokyo String Quartet, Martin Beaver :: Mozart: String Quartets K. 575, K. 589, K. 590

Excellent Late Mozart Quartets

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 09/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the last set of quartets Mozart wrote. He intended to write six but didn't get past the third one. They are notable for their more prominent, not to say virtuosic, cello parts; he wrote them this way because they were for the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm II, his patron, who was a fine cellist. It is particularly nice to hear this set because it features the Tokyo's relatively new cellist, Clive Greensmith, who was formerly principal cellist of the Royal Philharmonic, and he does a bang-up job of it here. The Tokyo is known for their elegance and probing musicianship. They've been together for more than thirty years but have two newish members: Greensmith and first violinist Martin Beaver. The so-important inner voices of the quartets are played by two founding members of the quartet, Kikuei Ikeda, violin, and Kazuhide Isomura, viola. The funny thing is that when I listened to this set and then listened to an older set by the original four members I couldn't hear much difference at all. One must presume that the older members of the quartet have initiated the newer ones in the musical ways of the group.



At any rate, these are terrific readings of the three last wonderful quartets and they are worthy of inclusion in one's library whether one's first recordings of K. 575, 589, and 590, or one's tenth such set.



Scott Morrison"