[roymail]

I love String Quartet recordings, and I know that many of you do, too.  I love hearing the bow on the strings and following the finese of the artists as they portray the master's intent.

What recordings are your favorites? 

[steve k]

Anything by the Quartetto Italiano on Phillips on vinyl. Their performances are breathtaking and the recordings excellent. I've managed to get their entire Beethoven catalog now in three pristine box sets. They would go to the desert island with me.
steve

[Tyson]

I'm a big fan of the Emerson Quartet.  Same with the Takacs Quartet.  Anything they've recorded is worth picking up.

[Dave G]

A particular favorite is the Tatrai Quartet's recording of Haydn's Op. 76 or "Erdödy" Quartets.  These are supposedly the best-known of Haydn's quartets (he composed a lot of them), and the performance to me is just lovely, sweet, and pure.  As the lead Amazon reviewer says, "These friendly, humane performances were recorded in Budapest in 1964, but you'd never know it from the excellent perspective and warmth of the recording. And the performances are superb: highly technically accomplished, while at the same time capturing all of the varying moods and tempi of this endlessly enriching music perfectly."

For more info on Amazon, see this.

Dave

[JohnR]

Art of Fugue by Juilliard String Quartet is a long-time favorite of mine.

Samples - http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Art-Fugue/dp/B00138F2P6

[rklein]

The complete Beethoven Quartets perfomed by the Guarneri Quartet.  The scherzo from the Quartet in B flat major op. 18, no. 6 is absolutely incredible!  Their recordings of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" and another recording consisting of Ravel's Quartet in F Major coupled with Debussy Quartet in g minor, Opus 10 are excellent as well.

I also like the Cleveland Quartet's recordings of Brahms' string quartets.  Other recordings to listen to would be of the Budapest String Quartet.  Yes, the quality of the recordings is crappy but their interpertations are legendary.

I also like the Takacs Quartet as well.

All of my listening with the above groups is done on vinyl.

rklein

[valvesnvinylfan]

I have a lot of recordings of the Debussy and Ravel quartets (pretty common pairing I guess), but the latest one I'm enjoying is the fairly recent release by Quatuor Ebene. Fine recording of the Faure quartet on here, too.

[Ronm1]

+1 on Quartetto Italiano on Phillips, though I don't have the vinyl version..  I'm partial to the Frye Street Quartet releases on hybrid.

[coverto]

I'll second the Guarneri Quartet, especially on Beethoven's Late Quartets. Played with tremendous verve and emotion. The 1969 recording, while not necessarily top-notch in fidelity, goes easy on the acoustical reverb, bringing out the otherworldly and supernal quality of the music, as if they were recorded on the Moon, or sometime after the end of the world... highly appropriate, especially for Op. 131 and Op. 132... Also, their scorching edition of the wonderful Op. 127 showed everybody else how it's played, and has never been touched.

Takacs Quartet also good for these pieces for those who insist on more fidelity in the recording.

[Todd_A]

There are of course many fine SQ recordings by fine ensembles.  Some of my faves are:

LvB – Vegh (stereo), Budapest (mono, United Artists), Prazak (Praga)

Bartok – Vegh (stereo), Emerson

Shostakovich – Danel, Borodin (Melodiya), Emerson

Haydn – Tatrai (Op 76), Budapest (Op 76), Mosaiques (all they’ve recorded)

Schulhoff – Petersen

Schubert – Takacs (14), Panocha (15)

Dvorak – Panocha (10-14), Pavel Haas Quartet (12)

Martinu – Panocha

Janacek – Prazak, Panocha, Talich (1989 recording), Pavel Haas Quartet

Prokofiev – Pavel Haas Quartet

Debussy/Ravel/Faure – Ebene Quartet

Villa-Lobos – Cuartetto Latinoamericano