Search - Beethoven, Quartetto Italiano :: Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 59 Nos. 2 & 3 "Rasumovsky"

SACD Version Not That Great an Improvement Over the Plain St

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/12/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For the last thirty-plus years there has been almost universal praise for the complete Beethoven Quartet recordings by the Quartetto Italiano. I count myself among those who have loved, and continue to love, these performances. The set originally came out on LP and was eventually remastered and released on CD. The CD box set is still available: Beethoven: Complete String Quartets [Box Set]. As well there are sets of the three Beethoven quartet periods, e.g. Beethoven: The Middle String Quartets. Now, Pentatone (a company started by Philips execs and engineers) is beginning to reissue the classic recordings in SACD remasterings. This is possible because the original Quartetto Italiano recordings were also made in the then-new quadraphonic process. So the SACDs have four tracks. Many of the Pentatone SACD releases of old Philips LPs have been revelatory. Such is not the case here. Although there is greater bloom and a somewhat more lifelike ambience in the present SACD release, the improvement is not so impressive as to necessitate buying the first of what will presumably be SACD reissue of the Beethoven complete quartets by the Quartetto Italiano.



One can presume that eventually Pentatone will collect all the quartets in a box set and possibly at a price break. If you feel you must have these and the Quartetto Italiano's other marvelous performances in SACD, I would suggest you wait until the whole set is issued together.



Scott Morrison"