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Posted by Martin Walker
on May 15, 2012, 10:00 am
82.251.205.134
I have to take issue with Jonathan Woolf's opinion that the Pascal Quartet's Beethoven series was "not particularly distinguished". It has been one of my great discoveries since I found it as a legal download on the Internet Archive - anyone can test their interpretations. I find their recordings of Beethoven reflect a high degree of colouristic differentiation in the service of contrapuntal clarity and melodic intensity - their work possesses moreover a soulful quality that I do not hear in modern quartet recordings. They are in my personal Beethoven quartet pantheon with the Busch and the Hungarian quartets, because they realise that "‘con molto sentimento’" quality Jonathan points to in their Franck interpretation.
Their cycle sold millions of discs, by the way, when it was issued on LP by the Concert Hall record company.
As to the CD under discussion, I am very grateful for Jonathan's knowledgeable review and his further recommendations - the Chausson concert with Kaufmann certainly makes my mouth water!
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