For the Beethoven cycle, I have the Emersons, the Veghs (stereo), Quartetto Italiano, Tokyo SQ (Harmonia Mundi SACD), Takacs SQ, Smithson SQ (Op. 18 - a great recording), and the ABQ (Middle and Late - Bought when you paid full price for each disc).
For Mozart Quintets, I have the Grumiaux set and the Fine Arts set (SACD)
For Mozart Quartets, I have Quartetto Italiano and ABQ (Nos. 14-23)
I’m sure I have some single discs as well.
There must be a way of making that play, David, but I can’t crack it!
No there isn’t. But I bought this a few weeks ago after you recommended it
Ah, I see. Unsurpassable music, I hope that you’re enjoying them. KV 515 and KV516 in particular transport you to a world of anguish, then bring you back into the light.
Well, they do that to me, anyway.
I keep humming the first movement of 516 to myself. It’s very distracting!
For the Mozart quintets, can I put a plug in for The Nash Ensemble, on Hyperion. A very fine recording.
Cheers
EJ
Last year I added the Cuarteto Casals and the Quatuor Ébène Beethoven cycles. I loved the Ébène’s Rasumovsky quartets but not sure yet about the entire cycle, it’s a bit unvariedly intense. The Casals on the other hand, absolutely stunning performances, worthy on the shelf next to the Italians, Alban Berg and Tokyo (among my personal favorites).
I’m pretty much with Graham, here.
Grumiaux et al for the Mozart Quintets.
Quartetto Italiano for Mozart and Beethoven quartets.
Both fantastic.
I also give a nod to ABQ (70’s set) and Tokyo SQ (later SACD set) for the Beethoven SQ’s as per John G’s post.
This is Germany’s leading newspaper’s headline this morning, our good old friend Ludwig still makes it to page 1:
A group of researches were finally able to do some DNA sequencing. Interesting findings!
I too endorse the appreciation of the Mozart Quintets.
May I also promote the Mozart Piano Quartet in G Minor K478. G Minor is of course a significant key for Mozart and once I hear the first movement of K478, it stays with me for a long time. I have the Nash Ensemble recording of this; my copy is on the ASV Gold label, but I assume it’s the same as now reissued on Alto as here:
I have exactly the same set. I must dig them out again.
I’m on a roll. Just discovered that I have that set as well!
More here:
You’re very lucky - I think - that you’re able to forget having something as fabulous as Arthur Grumiaux and others in the Mozart String Quintets!
Well there is a bit of a story there. A friend of our’s mother was going into a care home. She and her husband had a very extensive collection of records. Most were sold to a dealer. However I was able to buy the rest for a modest amount. And I simply have not had the chance to go through them all yet. Then something will spur me on to look for something specific, such as the discussion above about the quintets, and there they were. And are currently playing.
Some guys have all the luck - as someone sang once. Nice things like that never happen to me!
I hope that you find a few more treasures.
I wonder: if you have an extensive and quite possibly rather valuable record collection (I sense we have a few highly committed collectors here!), what happens to the records when your hour comes?
Will the children inherit and enjoy the collection, or is it more likely that your life’s effort goes to a dealer for peanuts? If the latter, the last hour might be even more painful…
My wife and I are in the process of creating a family trust for ourselves. One of the things it will stipulate is that when we pass away the record collection and hifi will be sold to a buyer (probably Acoustic Sounds in Salina, KS). The proceeds will go to charity. Half of it to our local cancer research center (Siteman Center for Advanced Medicine), and the other half to rescue shelters for dogs.
Dogs are better than people anyway, so they deserve it.
Oh dear! - final para.
