Cleveland Quartet – Beethoven: The Late String Quartets (2023 Remastered Version) (1983/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Cleveland Quartet – Beethoven: The Late String Quartets (2023 Remastered Version) (1983/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 03:33:06 minutes | 7,20 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal

Immediately upon their debut at the 1969 Marlboro Festival, four brilliant young American musicians calling themselves the Cleveland Quartet were hailed as a chamber ensemble of exceptional quality. Over the next quarter century, they performed on every continent, including nearly 30 complete Beethoven cycles in the US and Europe. At their peak, the Cleveland Quartet gave more than 100 concerts a year. They became the first classical artists to play on the televised Grammy awards and performed at the White House for President’s Carter inauguration.

“A quartet in the great tradition,” declared Stereo Review’scritic, commenting on the Cleveland’s Beethoven for RCA Victor, their exclusive label between 1972 and 1987. Most of the ensemble’s recordings for RCA had never appeared on CD. Sony Classical is pleased to offer ten critically acclaimed individual albums as single albums (not a box-set).

The earliest entry, first released in 1973, comprises the three Brahms quartets, idiomatic performances that Gramophone’s enthusiastic reviewer heard as “suffused with a warm and mellow light. Scrupulous attention is given to every detail and yet lyrical phrases are allowed their head. … There is no other complete set of these three works that effectively rivals this new recording.”

The same magazine also acclaimed the next Cleveland release, Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”: “I know of no string quartet with more sumptuous tone than the Cleveland. Their style of music-making is equally generous: they squeeze the last drop of expression out of every bar. … The recording is excellent in catching their tonal body and bloom.”

And so the story continued, with quartets by Haydn, Ives (“A definitive performance” – High Fidelity) and Barber, as well as collaborations with Emanuel Ax in the piano quintets of Schumann, Brahms and Dvořák, which Stereo Review in 1977 deemed “the finest thing the Cleveland Quartet has yet given us – simply gorgeous playing that is totally integrated, within the foursome and with the pianist, at every point.”

Tracklist:
1-1. Cleveland Quartet – I. Maestoso – Allegro (2023 Remastered Version) (06:44)
1-2. Cleveland Quartet – II. Adagio ma non troppo e molto cantabile (2023 Remastered Version) (15:15)
1-3. Cleveland Quartet – III. Scherzando (2023 Remastered Version) (08:04)
1-4. Cleveland Quartet – IV. Finale (2023 Remastered Version) (06:45)
1-5. Cleveland Quartet – I. Allegretto (2023 Remastered Version) (07:00)
1-6. Cleveland Quartet – II. Vivace (2023 Remastered Version) (03:06)
1-7. Cleveland Quartet – III. Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo (2023 Remastered Version) (09:15)
1-8. Cleveland Quartet – IV. Der schwer gefasste Entschluss (2023 Remastered Version) (10:43)
2-9. Cleveland Quartet – I. Adagio, ma non troppo – Allegro (2023 Remastered Version) (15:59)
2-10. Cleveland Quartet – II. Presto (2023 Remastered Version) (01:54)
2-11. Cleveland Quartet – III. Andante con moto, ma non troppo (2023 Remastered Version) (07:02)
2-12. Cleveland Quartet – IV. Alla danza tedesca – Allegro assai (2023 Remastered Version) (03:43)
2-13. Cleveland Quartet – V. Cavatina – Adagio molto espressivo (2023 Remastered Version) (08:12)
2-14. Cleveland Quartet – VI. Finale – Allegro (2023 Remastered Version) (10:19)
3-15. Cleveland Quartet – I. Adagio ma non troppo e molto expressivo (2023 Remastered Version) (07:49)
3-16. Cleveland Quartet – II. Allegro molto vivace (2023 Remastered Version) (02:42)
3-17. Cleveland Quartet – III. Allegro moderato (2023 Remastered Version) (00:46)
3-18. Cleveland Quartet – IV. Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile (2023 Remastered Version) (13:58)
3-19. Cleveland Quartet – V. Presto (2023 Remastered Version) (05:04)
3-20. Cleveland Quartet – VI. Adagio quasi un poco andante (2023 Remastered Version) (01:55)
3-21. Cleveland Quartet – VII. Allegro (2023 Remastered Version) (07:04)
3-22. Cleveland Quartet – Grosse Fuge in B-Flat Major, Op. 133 (2023 Remastered Version) (16:08)
4-23. Cleveland Quartet – I. Assai sostenuto – Allegro (2023 Remastered Version) (10:12)
4-24. Cleveland Quartet – II. Allegro ma non tanto (2023 Remastered Version) (08:33)
4-25. Cleveland Quartet – III. Molto adagio (2023 Remastered Version) (16:13)
4-26. Cleveland Quartet – IV. Alla marcia, assai vivace (2023 Remastered Version) (02:09)
4-27. Cleveland Quartet – V. Allegro appassionato (2023 Remastered Version) (06:21)

Download: