First Chamber Music

Beethoven String Quartets, the Late Quartets by the Takacs Quartet. The first chamber music to be considered here and one of the pinnacles of the form, of course. It also brings up the question of how you listen to box sets. This is a 3 cd collection, would you aim to sit through 220 minutes of concentrated listening at one go ? I would suggest not in this instance, especially since there are two other 3cd sets from the Takacs in this series containing the other Beethoven quartets. These also reside in my collection and will make an appearance on the blog in due course. It is a futile exercise to try and rank performances of such a staple of the repertoire as these works but the Takacs versions are of very high quality. I came to chamber music a little later than orchestral, there weren't so many obvious "big tunes" to latch onto. But eventually I appreciated the interplay between the members of the quartet in the same way as with a jazz ensemble. The late quartets are among Beethoven's most personal statements and this recording includes the Grosse Fuge. Sometimes posterity gets things right and Beethoven's status is one of those times.