Mozart:The Guarneri Quartet plays String Quartets and Quintets

Sony's budget-priced reissue campaign proceeds apace. A few months ago, they exhumed the Juilliard String Quartet's estimable traversals of Mozart's "Haydn" Quartets and String Quintets from the CBS vaults; now from the old RCA catalog comes an equally distinguished traversal of the same repertoire by the Guarneri Quartet. Since both sets are quite inexpensive, chamber music enthusiasts might want to purchase both, for the approaches of these two distinguished American ensembles provide sharp and fascinating contrasts. Whereas the Juilliard favor a lean collective tone, incisive attacks and strong rhythmic articulation, the Guarneri's favor a sweetly lyrical approach, more leisurely tempos, and an elegant, even suave manner. They also strive to maintain the "long line" at all costs, thereby bringing out the "vocal" and operatic qualities in Mozart's chamber music. Both approaches are valid--the Juilliards leaning more toward a Classical style, and the Guarneri's toward a proto-romantic interpretation that harks back to mid-Twentieth Century Viennese ensembles such as the Konzerthaus Quartet, the Baryllis and the Wellers.The results, in the case of the Guarneri's readings (no less than the Juilliard's) are simply splendid. Mozart opined that operatic ensembles should "flow like oil," and that metaphor aptly describes the Guarneri's traversals of all twelve of these wonderful works. The Six "Haydn" Quartets come from the early 1970's and find the ensemble in splendid form; slow movements, in particular, are deeply considered and ensemble throughout is near-perfect. The engineers provide a warm ambience without sacrificing clarity; at all times the four instruments are clearly audible. The Quintets derive from the late 1980's, and were taken down at live concerts. Three distinguished violists participate in two Quintets apiece. The interpretations are, in a word, magnificent. These musicians clearly appreciate the intricacy of Mozart's craftsmanship no less than his profound, and profoundly unsettling, expression of the human condition with all its ambiguities and paradoxes. The Guarneri and their distinguished guest violists also cultivate a fully conversational style, in which each performer responds to the others in dialogic fashion. In other words, these are genuine chamber music performances, not occasions for five virtuosos to exhibit their talents (though there is no want of virtuosity when required; apart from one or two momentary intonational lapses, the playing is immaculate throughout). The three greatest Quintets (the C-Major, G-Minor and D-major) are given performances that approach sublimity, and once again the slow movements are presented as the heart of each work. The engineering is as fine here as with the studio recordings of the Haydn Quartets. There is plenty of hall ambience, though not so much as to muddy the textures, and there are no distracting audience noises.In sum then, this distinguished set of Mozart chamber music that deserves to rank alongside the finest versions of the Haydn Quartets and Viola Quintets --including the Juilliard versions mentioned above, as well as those by the Amadeus, the Budapest, and the Pro Arte (the latter are classic performances from the 78-rpm era last seen in an early-1990's set from EMI). As usual with this new series from Sony, there is minimal documentation. But the music is the thing, and on that score listeners will not be disappointed. Warmly recommended, then, both to veteran collectors and to those looking for a "basic library selection."

The musicianship is five star, but the recording quality is not as consistent as one might hope. Having grown up in the 1970s with an audiophile father who had the full classical repertoire on LPs, I am not a digital snob. I buy many old recordings that have been transferred to CD and know what to expect; never before have I written a review that quibbles about sound quality. But I am a decently skilled amateur cellist who performs in community chamber music recitals periodically, and have played a few of the quartets in this collection. Obviously hearing the cello part well is very important to me. CD1 is the worst on this aspect – my EQs are set to optimize classical chamber music, but I had to manually go and crank up the bass value to hear the cello lines that I knew and loved. After doing so, I still found the lower register to have a muddy, dull quality. The problem is worst on CD1 and only nominally noticable on CDs 2 & 3 (I was able to restore my original EQ settings and only noticed slight deficiencies). The sound quality on the Quintets is great. My only beef with the quintets is it would be awfully nice to get the guest violist in on the photo! Aside from these issues (which are really most noticable to a cellist), the intepretation and tempos are great. No issues with the Guarneri guys, just with the engineers who recorded and remastered.

for many years until reading an excellent long review recently on Amazon. It was a long and detailedcomparative review of the Schubert Quintet D956 and I was not disappointed. It is now one of my treasured versions (with the Amadeus/Pleeth/DG and the Lindsays/Douglas Cummings/ASV). This Mozart boxpossesses similar attributes. Technical skill and virtuosity, tonal richness, interpretivedepth (more textual digging than skimming). Also much warmth and compassion in phrasing.They are a bit slower than the Emersons in the Quartets #s 14-19, but quick movements donot drag, e.g #14/4, 17/1 and 4, 19/4 and quick quintet movements such as k515/4 and k614.1 and four. Third movements move and slow movements are serious and poetic, e.g.k516/3 and 4(which I consided a double slow movement before the quick finale), K 515/2 and593/2, 421/2 and 465/2. The Guarneris also oberve most repeatsThis set reminds me most of the Quartetto Italiano's Mozart set-tonally luxurious, awashin sheer beauty and without superficiality. In their Mozart at least, the Italiano didnot play too slowly.Other peers in the Quartets: Amadeus/DG (minus many repeats); Lindsays/ASV; Smetana Quartet/Denon; Janacek Quartet/DG (#14 only); Emerson/DG (though their #s 21-23 are even better.Other peers in the Quintets: Baryllis/Westminster/k174,406, 515, 516 and 593; Grumiaux Ensemble/Philips; Talich Quartet/Calliope; Lindsays/ASV (including the Clarinet Quintet with Janet Hilton; Amadeus (in the 1950s version, k593/4 is misedited but corrected in their second version. However, tempi in the slow movement of their k515 are rushed in their second version of k515 but unrushed in their 1950s version; Juilliard/Sony (including the Clarinet Quintet with Harold Wright)

Musically this album should deserve 5 stars but I am reducing to 3 because of sloppy packaging:CD1: The label correctly states quartets 14 and 15 and the music is actually those items, as I checked by comparing with other renderings on You Tube and my old vinyls. The picture of the original cover that appears on the Windows Media Player screen is also the one for the Guarneri recording. However the listing that appears on the screen pertains incorrectly to quartets 16 and 17. What is more, the performers on that screen are stated as the Salomon Quartet, not the Guarneri.CD2: Music and labels are correctly 16 and 17, but again the Salomon in the performer listing. In this case the cover picture is for the Salomon, which leads me to wonder if I truly received what I paid for.CD3: Music, labels and cover picture correctly for 18 and 19, but again the Salomon listing. Have the Sony people ever heard of something called quality control?The remaining CD's with the quintets are all fine.

Excelente interpretación. Mozart es siempre maravilloso

I am very excited to have a recording by the acclaimed Guarneri Quartet. My only complaints: the audible coughing (disc 4: track 5, track 6, etc.) and audience and background noise on the three quintet disks in the set; and the lack of even the sketchiest of notes. Considering the amazing price for over five and one half hours of such fine music, I can live with it, but I would have chosen a different performance, had I known in advance that the quintets were recorded live.

good performance but recording somewhat bare

Pour pouvoir apprécier cette interprétation il faut disposer de CDs en bon état.A chaque achat d'un coffret EMI comme c'est cas de ces quatuors de Mozart il faut s'attendre à trouver des CD rayésou illisibles. Idem pour Scarlatti par Christian Zacharias. C'est scandaleux. Le prix relativement doux ne justifie guère une pratique commerciale déloyale.Donc exit EMI.