Beethoven: String Quartets Nos. 1-16 (complete, inc. Grosse Fuge)

The Hungarian Quartet, formed in 1935, embodied the very best of the Central European tradition of string-playing, and this cycle, recorded in Paris in the early 1950s, represents an essential staging post in the quest for Beethoven "These performances will give endless pleasure," wrote Gramophone, "… the ensemble attack and technical proficiency of this quartet are beyond praise … and so is their grasp of the music." These recordings have now been remastered from the original tapes in 24BIT-96kHz digital sound.

"[in the finale of the Fifth Quartet] and elsewhere the playing, which is often admirably precise, has great humanity and emotional force...The Beethoven performances are animated, expressive and, in terms of part-playing, beautifully balanced." Gramophone