Any recommendations of analog string quartet recordings?

[Bol]

I'm getting slightly obsessed with listening to old string quartet recordings on vinyl.  The strings sound so much richer and multi-dimensional than on digital recordings.

The two sets I've been playing repeatedly are:

Schneider Quartet's almost complete recordings (why not Op. 9?!) of the Haydn quartets issued by Haydn Society Records in the 1950s.  

Vegh Quartet's recordings of the Beethoven quartets issued by Valois in the 1970's

If you know old pre-digital string quartet recordings that you particularly love, please recommend them.  I am currently trying to get good copies of the Vegh Quartet's Bartok quartets, and eyeing Quarteto Italiano's Schumann quartets.  What else?

Edited September 10, 2023 by Bol

[BillF]

Organissimo jazz forums?

[jazzbo]

I was going to recommend the Vegh Quartet work. I have a pretty limited experience along these lines, but those always impressed me.

[Teasing the Korean]

Lots of good options for the Debussy and Ravel string quartets, which are typically paired on LP.

[sgcim]

Here's one on CRI from Billy Jim Layton, the head of the music dept. at the uni I went to. It has some jazz elements to it (the cello playing a walking bass line, the long Dolphy-liike violin lines.

He liked to use jazz elements in his pieces, but a friend of mine who was a child prodigy on piano, was 'arrested' by the music dept. police, and brought before 'judge 'Billy Jim' for the offense of playing jazz piano in the practice rooms. He was ordered to stop playing 'popular music', and concentrate on 'serious music'.

My friend responded by transferring to The New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jaki Byard.

The second movement is a snooze fest, so I didn't include it, but it's available on the queue. I don't know if it ever made it to digital, but it sounds great on vinyl.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by sgcim

[HutchFan]

2 hours ago, Bol said:

If you know old pre-digital string quartet recordings that you particularly love, please recommend them.  I am currently trying to get good copies of the Vegh Quartet's Bartok quartets, and eyeing Quarteto Italiano's Schumann quartets.  What else?

The Quartetto Italiano made a gorgeous sound, and (beginning in the mid-1960s) Philips engineers captured it beautifully.

I'm not familiar with their Schumann recordings -- but I would definitely recommend the Quartetto Italiano recordings of Mozart, Beethoven, and (most especially) Schubert.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by HutchFan

[Peter Friedman]

The Budapest String Quartet, The Weller Quartet and The Hungarian String Quartet are all early string Quartets that were all on analog recordings. You can find recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, etc. by these quartets.

[mjzee]

I haven't heard them, but these get very good reviews:

[JSngry]

https://pragadigitals.bandcamp.com/album/b-la-bart-k-complete-string-quartets-v-gh-quartet-1954-version-remastered

https://www.discogs.com/artist/917143-Quatuor-Végh

Also keep an eye on Dusty Groove's classical vinyl. Things show up there that will possibly be of interest. 

This will do ya'. 

[JSngry]

Here's some complete Vegh/Bartok sets available from France:

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/20493004?ev=rb

[Ron S]

The Tatrai Quartet's Haydn quartet recordings on Hungaraton--the first complete recorded Haydn quartet cycle--are generally highly regarded:

https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=haydn+tatrai&type=all&format_exact=LP

Edited September 10, 2023 by Ron S

[clifford_thornton]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Here's some complete Vegh/Bartok sets available from France:

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/20493004?ev=rb

also worthwhile: https://www.discogs.com/release/2925432-Bartók-The-Juilliard-String-Quartet-The-Six-String-Quartets

[Bol]

2 hours ago, Ron S said:

The Tatrai Quartet's Haydn quartet recordings on Hungaraton--the first complete recorded Haydn quartet cycle--are generally highly regarded:

https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=haydn+tatrai&type=all&format_exact=LP

The Tatrai Quartet's recordings (on CD's) were my first introduction to Haydn's quartets back when I was in grad school in the 1990's!  At some point, I moved on the the period instrument recordings and got rid of the Tatrai CD's.  But now I like many of the older recordings on modern instruments.  So I will check some of these out.  Thanks.

[Peter Friedman]

Interesting that The Tatrai Quartet's on CD were also my first introduction to the Haydn String Quartets. I still have them and very much enjoy them along with many other sets of Haydn's String Quartets

[JSngry]

The Tatrai Bartok recordings were released in the US on the Dover label and can be found pretty reasonably often enough.

Condition should be considered before going for the lowest price. But they are excellent recordings. 

[JSngry]

On 9/10/2023 at 10:20 AM, JSngry said:

Also keep an eye on Dusty Groove's classical vinyl. Things show up there that will possibly be of interest. 

 

https://www.dustygroove.com/browse.php?cat=classical&sf=quartet&incl_oos=1&incl_cs=1&kwfilter=quartet&format=lp

Current listings.

[Bol]

On 9/13/2023 at 3:53 AM, JSngry said:

https://www.dustygroove.com/browse.php?cat=classical&sf=quartet&incl_oos=1&incl_cs=1&kwfilter=quartet&format=lp

Current listings.

Yes, they have some really good ones. Unfortunately, I am in the UK, and the shipping would be prohibitive.  Not to mention the customs.  Sigh...

[JSngry]

Oh, sorry about that.

At least there's some records. Maybe you can find them in your part of the world.

I shared your affection for analog quartets, analog classical in general. I really like the sound of the pre-hifi records (especially 10" LPs), boxy yet with such an immediacy. It gets cleaned up in later iterations (when there are any), but I like those first attempts to get stuff on LP. 

Happy hunting, and let us know what you find! 

 

[soulpope]

https://www.discogs.com/release/1654237-Weller-Quartett-Decca-Recordings-1964-1970