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The Greatest Modern Readings of These Works

Matt Matthews | Seattle, WA USA | 10/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If like most people you believe that as a composer of great string quartets Beethoven begins with the monumentally great opus 59 "Rasomouvsky Quartets (praised by Stravinsky as the "New Testament" of Western Music), or if you ever have been let down by lackluster performances of the opus 18, listen to the Lindsays, whose hallmark in this opus (as in nearly everything they play) is an infectious sense of the importance, depth, interest, etc., of what they play. The F major (no. 1) came as a revelation to me, particularly in the adagio, played with an aching and unaffected pathos that portends the great slow movements of the opus 59. The ensemble playing is so beautifully voiced that some of the harmonies come to the ear with the freshness of works newly heard, even if you know them well. These really are that implausible thing, performances so intelligent and impassioned that you might be induced by listening to them to think you have never truly heard these works in all of their beauty and interest."