Search - Ludwig van Beethoven :: Beethoven: String Quartets, Op. 59 No. 1 "Rasumovsky"; Op. 18 No. 6 [Hybrid SACD]

Superb SACD

blue-59 | Blount Springs, Alabama, United States | 07/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Quartetto Italiano recorded the Beethoven quartets between 1968 and 1974, and both the performances and the recorded sound were well received. Fully modern sound, and quite silky at that. Is there a definitive set of the Beethoven quartets? No, and there never will be. But the surfaces of the Philips LPs (from Holland) were beautifully clean, so many people chose this set.



For people starting out on the Beethoven quartets, you can't go wrong with the Italiano. In fact, I don't know of any quartet collection that is not acceptable. (I also own the Smetana, the Vegh, and for the late quartets, the Yale, which are all fine.) So why not get SACD hybrids in case you upgrade your system? The question is, If you already own the Italiano CDs, should you replace them with the new SACDs?



Well, the best description of this SACD is "a perfect LP on a perfect turntable, with a perfect arm and cartridge." All the advantages of CD without its disadvantages, and all the quality of LP without its physical problems. So if this music is important to you, get the SACDs. They're clearly superior and worth it. But if you seldom listen to your Italiano CDs . . .

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