Search - Bela Bartok, Fine Arts Quartet, Irving Ilmer :: Béla Bartók: The Six String Quartets

For me, the definitive performances on record of the Bartok

Kerry Maxwell | Arlington, MA USA | 10/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've purchased many performances of the Bartok Quartets, trying to match the excitement of first hearing these recordings on vinyl in my late teens, some 30 years ago. I still have those discs, but years of use on sub-optimal equipment has lead to their virtual retirement. I finally discovered this CD set, and it was quite an emotional reunion with an old friend. I can admire the better known renditions of these six quartets (Emerson, etc,), but the Fine Arts Quartet is my only true love. The only way I'd buy another version of the Bartok Quartets is if these recordings were released on SACD.



Kerry M"

Takes me back!

Howard G Brown | Port St. Lucie, FL USA | 12/29/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought the lps at a discount shop in Chicago around 1960, when I was in high school. Aside from hearing a performance of the 4th Quartet on WFMT radio, this was my introduction to the Bartok Quartets.



I have several other recordings, but after many, many years (the lps were lost during one of numerous cross-country moves) it is wonderful to have these recordings on the shelf again. They take me back to when this music was brand new to me, when I would play it late at night, to listen in wonder when the world was very quiet."