Well I'm a newbee to this blog so I hope this isn't too far off the mark. One of my favorite recordings of all time--classics wise is this recording by the Emerson String Quartet. I don't have a real discerning ear to hear subtle differences between the different recordings so I can't say if this recording is appreciably better than other recordings that have been done of these works, though the album has been received well by the critics. What I like about this one is that three of my favorite string quartets are all on the same disk. Dvorak's "American Quartet" was a very pleasant discovery for me. I've liked his New World Symphony from the time I was a little kid, pretending to conduct an orchestra standing on the piano bench, but hadn't heard many other things by Dvorak until just recently. I find I've liked a large number of his works. Tchaikovsky's string quartet doesn't seem to be often performed in its entirety, generally the second movement "Andante cantabile" is played as a stand-alone piece. Small wonder, it is a beautiful piece. The whole quartet is also very fine to my mind. Borodin is another of my favorite composers, though I also hadn't heard this entire string quartet until I bought this cd. I had heard the "Nocturne" before as a stand-alone piece and liked it very much
I liked the cd so well I got an additional one and gave it to LaRayne for Christmas so if want to have a listen you might hit her up for one.
2 comments:
You have a good ear--the Emerson String Quartet is as good as it gets.
I think I mentioned this to you on the mountain, Unc S.S., but Ami and I recently took Ellie to a kid's concert at Carnegie Hall. The program was mostly Dvorak, charting his course through America and the influences he met up with. Ellie had a great time and now keeps asking when then next concert is. As for me, I'd never heard anything beyond the New World Symphony so it was interesting. Good stuff, his.
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