The Juilliard String Quartet was heard only sparsely on recordings in the 2010s as the group went through personnel changes that to traditionalists might have threatened to sink the venerable group. They can rest easy, however, for in this 2021 recording, on a renewed contract with Sony Classical and what is billed as a 75th-anniversary album, the new lineup offers a program of Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvorák that is traditional as can be, and a sound that respects the virtues of the group as it existed in its heyday. Those ...
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The Juilliard String Quartet was heard only sparsely on recordings in the 2010s as the group went through personnel changes that to traditionalists might have threatened to sink the venerable group. They can rest easy, however, for in this 2021 recording, on a renewed contract with Sony Classical and what is billed as a 75th-anniversary album, the new lineup offers a program of Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvorák that is traditional as can be, and a sound that respects the virtues of the group as it existed in its heyday. Those virtues include soberness, clarity, and carefully wrought balances, all on display in the Beethoven String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2. Here, the Juilliard avoids the overwrought performances that have become, if not the norm, at least increasingly accepted and brings a wonderful transparency to the "Thčme russe" middle section of the Scherzo, with its dense contrapuntal overlay. The Bartók String Quartet No. 3 likewise emphasizes the work's classical roots rather than its...
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