Roisman Archive

The Budapest String Quartet plays BRAHMS Quartets & Quintets – Praga Digitals

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 27, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

The five major Brahms string works receive vivid, boldly evocative readings in classic performances. BRAHMS: String Quartet No. 2 in a, Op. 51, No. 2; String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, Op. 67; String Quartet No. 1 in c, OP. 51, No. 1; String Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 88; String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111 – The Budapest String Q./ Walter Trampler, viola – Praga Digitals PRD 250 348 (2 CDs), TT: 2:28:29 (2/24/17) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] For many collectors of chamber music recordings, the Brahms String Quartets, as played by The Budapest String Quartet for CBS (LP, SL 225) from November and December 1963, represented a milestone for their store of great music.  Generally, the level of execution of the group – originally founded in 1917 – still glowed with amber power, but weaknesses infected the intonation of Joseph Roisman, first violin. The ensemble would disband at last in 1967. The set opens with the Brahms a minor Quartet, Op. 51, No. 2 (1873), a melancholy paean to Schubert, whose own quartet in the same key holds an ethereal, doomed atmosphere. Brahms utilizes in the second violin (Sascha Schneider) the patented […]