Search - Juilliard String Quartet :: Beethoven: Complete String Quartets [Box Set]

Echoes from the golden age.

Larry Lapidus | Spokane, WA United States | 05/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is hard to communicate the feeling of excitement that surrounded a concert or concert series by the Juilliard String Quartet in the 1960's, when most of these performances were recorded. To those for whom serious music really mattered, and it seemed that there were many, there was a touch of the sacred about their appearances. There was nothing pompous or hieratic about their manner, quite the contrary; they were direct, businesslike and untheatrical, but they seemed to present their audiences with a glimpse into the heart of music. They played with a degree of concentration and intensity that was palpable. Of course, this required instrumental virtuosity of the highest calibre, but the effect was never dazzling, but always clarifying and intensifying. A Schoenberg series at Berkeley, which I was priviledged to attend, was among the greatest experiences of my life, and yet, I am no great fan of the Second Viennese School. The music was illuminated from within by the dedication and mastery of the quartet, and we all left the hall different from who we were when we entered.

The quartet was somehow able to convey this same transfiguring focus and intensity in their recordings, which is why they were so eagerly awaited and so rapturously received at the time. It is a wonderful thing that their Beethoven cycle is available now so cheaply and easily. It deserves a place in the collection of everyone who cares about music."