Mozart: Late String Quartets: String Quartet No. 14; String Quartet No. 15; String Quartet No. 16; String Quartet No. 17; String Quartet No. 18; String Quartet No. 19; String Quartet No. 20; String Quartet No. 21; String Quartet No. 22; String Quartet No.

Textbook Mozart performances from the Berg Quartet, recorded between 1976 and 1979, yet sounding as fresh and vital as one could wish in these digitalised reissues. Despite various changes in personnel since the late Seventies, the consistency and excellence of this quartet is astonishing, and its Mozart interpretations rank alongside the best available.

Our rating

4

Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:31 pm

COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Teldec
WORKS: Late String Quartets: String Quartet No. 14; String Quartet No. 15; String Quartet No. 16; String Quartet No. 17; String Quartet No. 18; String Quartet No. 19; String Quartet No. 20; String Quartet No. 21; String Quartet No. 22; String Quartet No. 23
PERFORMER: Alban Berg Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: 4509-95495-2 ADD (1976-79)

Textbook Mozart performances from the Berg Quartet, recorded between 1976 and 1979, yet sounding as fresh and vital as one could wish in these digitalised reissues. Despite various changes in personnel since the late Seventies, the consistency and excellence of this quartet is astonishing, and its Mozart interpretations rank alongside the best available.

The three Prussian Quartets are splendidly realised here; nobly conceived, elegant and effortlessly lyrical. Elsewhere, notably in the so-called Dissonance Quartet, K465, the Bergs’s melting phrasing and yearningly expressive manner are particularly satisfying. Various repeats are omitted throughout, according to modern convention, and again Teldec provides no insert notes. Michael Jameson

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