Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 10 & 11

On this CD:

1. String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major ("Harp"), Op. 74
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performed by Yevgeniya Alikhanova, Valentina Alykova, Tatyana Kokhanovskaya, Moscow String Quartet, Olga Organovich

2. String Quartet No. 11 in F minor ("Serioso"), Op. 95
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performed by Yevgeniya Alikhanova, Valentina Alykova, Tatyana Kokhanovskaya, Moscow String Quartet, Olga Organovich

Tracks:

Str Qt No.10 in E flat, Op.74 'Harp: 1. Poco Adagio-Allegro
Str Qt No.10 in E flat, Op.74 'Harp': 2. Adagio Ma Non Troppo
Str Qt No.10 in E flat, Op.74 'Harp': 3. Presto (Piu Presto Quasi Prestissimo)
Str Qt No.10 in E flat, Op.74 'Harp': 4. Allegretto Con Vars
Str Qt No.11 in f, Op.95 'Serioso': 1. Allegro Con Brio
Str Qt No.11 in f, Op.95 'Serioso': 2. Allegretto, Ma Non Troppo
Str Qt No.11 in f, Op.95 'Serioso': 3. Allegro Assai Vivace, Ma Serioso
Str Qt No.11 in f, Op.95 'Serioso': 4. Larghetto Espressivo-Allegretto Agitato

Customer Reviews:

Three-and-a-half stars...Straightforward and very fine.......2002-01-25

This is one of those albums that will delight those who like straightforward interpretations and frustrate or bore those who don't. The four women here are all superb instrumentalists, but I don't hear any distinctive "signature" to their playing as I do when I listen to the Lindsays, Amadeus, Budapests, etc. There's also no personalities or leaders in this quartet--they're all equals when they play, and harmony is the name of the game. Again this will either be seen as a bug or a feature, depending on the listener's preferences. But they do give us two very balanced and rock-steady interpretations of two Beethoven masterpieces. The so-called "Serioso" quartet comes off especially well, and I suspect they indeed do serious, weighty music better than lighter Beethoven. This ranks with some of the better performances of Op. 95 I've heard. The "Harp" is less successful, lacking the energy and accents of many another version (try the Amadeus for comparison, and avoid the highly-hyped Italianos). It also sounds too studied, like they're reading rather than playing. If you just want these two works you might do well considering this disc, but if I were you I'd go for the whole schmeer and get a boxed set of the LvB quartets--the Lindsays or the Amadeus or the Budapests (studio or the wonderful Library of Congress live performances). You can't have too many recordings of the Beethoven quartets anyway, right?