COMPOSERS: Beethoven,Mendelssohn,Schubert
LABELS: EMI
ALBUM TITLE: Busch Quartet
WORKS: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 9; String Quartet No. 11; String Quartet No. 12,; String Quartet No. 14; String Quartet No. 15; String Quartet No. 16; Violin Sonata No. 3; String Quartet in B flat, D112; Capriccio, Op. 81/3
PERFORMER: with Rudolf Serkin (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: CHS 5 65308 2 ADD mono
The Busch Quartet, whose ‘late’ Beethoven retains comforting old-world expressive devices (slides, intense vibrato, etc) set within a strictly disciplined interpretative framework. EMI’s long-overdue transfers are the best we’ve had, and this 4-CD set should now serve as a definitive edition. The appropriate keyword here is, as so often with the finest historical recordings, ‘commitment’.