In every one of the quartets in this splendid collection, there is the feeling of setting out on an entirely fresh journey. Companionable … deeply...

In every one of the quartets in this splendid collection, there is the feeling of setting out on an entirely fresh journey. Companionable … deeply enjoyable … brilliantly inventive.

This is fine, traditional (in a good sense) quartet-playing, and unlike other complete quartet cycles currently available (Tatrai, Angeles), this set is REALLY complete. You get not only The Seven Last Words, but also the spurious, but very pretty, Op. 3 quartets, as well as the works later discovered to be arrangements of pieces for larger forces. These all fall among the earliest works, and so do not represent the composer's mature quartet style, but they are no less attractive for that and they are, one and all, well-played and well-recorded.

Among the mature works, the highlights include Op. 20, Op. 64, and Op. 76, all given intelligent, warm, lively interpretations. In Op. 33, the group misses something of Haydn's humor. Witness, for example, the silly pizzicato plonk that ends the G major Quartet's melodramatic slow movement, here taken at a serious piano instead of forte as indicated. In Op. 73/74, like many other groups (notably the Tatrai), these players tend to underplay the music's orchestral qualities--those grand gestures in some of the first movements and finales.

Still, if you're looking for a convenient way to acquire these literally epochal works in consistently attractive performances at an equally reasonable price, you can't go wrong here. It's all worth noting that the booklet, which includes the notes to Naxos' companion sets of concertos, symphonies, and piano works, offers quite a bonus.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com