Every quartet brings a different set of insights to this great music so that it is not possible to hail any one version as the only one to have. Yet I am tempted to say that whatever the respective merits of those listed above, this newcomer will be hard to beat. The set contains some performances of stature and though the Lindsays are not unrivalled in some of their insights by the Vegh (Valois/Harmonia Mundi) and the Talich (Calliope/Harmonia Mundi) taken by and large, they are second to none and superior to most. I played the set over a period of several days so as to digest and savour these performances, as one would if one had bought it in the normal course of events. First, the layout of the LPs: the first side is devoted to Op. 59 No. 3; the second to Op. 59 No. 2, whose finale spills over to Op. 59 No. 3 the remainder of which (together with Side 4) is occupied by Op. 59 No. 1. The last named, with which I began my listening, is very impressive indeed: to start off with, the tempos sound so completely right, ideally judged in relation to their overall conception of the work. The slow movement is slightly broader than some—the Alban Berg (HMV) or Gabrieli Quartets (Decca), for example—but in each movement the choice is ideally made to enable the players to make all the interpretative points they wish without our feeling hurried. Indeed, on returning to this performance I felt that in many respects these artists offer us the most consistently illuminating and inspired account of Op. 59 No. 1 at present on record: technically it is superior to the Vegh, though not perhaps to the Alban Berg and in the slow movement, at least, it is musically more penetrating than the Quartetto Italiano (Philips). I much admire the way in which phrases are matched in the development section of the first movement: at first it sounds a little restrained and wanting in 'eloquence', but each voice is perfectly matched and each phrase beautifully shaped, and the same unforced expressive feeling distinguishes the slow movement. Rhythms in the second movement are splendidly articulate and finely controlled.
As for Op. 59 No. 2 in E minor, I don't think I have heard a finer version of this since the Janacek Quartet's (Supraphon SUAST50516, 8/67—nla) which I long admired. Again, in each movement the Lindsays find the tempo giusto and all that they do as a result has the ring of complete conviction. The development and reprise of the first movement are repeated as well as the exposition and how imaginatively they play it too! The pp markings are scrupulously observed but are not obtrusively pasted on as I felt they were in the Alban Berg set: indeed, in terms of colour I have not heard this surpassed by anyone. I also found the same unforced 'eloquence' in the second part of the Minuet impressive, as indeed it is in the Vegh. So often, when one is worried by some detail in a Beethoven performance, perhaps some phrase that is not purposefully presented or imaginatively shaped, you are tempted to question the quality of your own response or freshness. And then the quality of musical imagination exhibited on that particular occasion by the artist. More often than not, it is the choice of basic tempo that is crucial. Once that is right and in harmony with the artist's overall conception, all the details fall into place and the melodic lines sound as if they could not be shaped in any other way. I found this account so musically satisfying that after hearing it, I felt no need to put the Lindsay's view of the work against any of their rivals, illuminating though that might have been. It did not occur to me to wonder what the Vegh, the Quartetto Italiano or the 1933 Busch (World Records mono SHB27, 1/75—nla) did at any particular juncture.
The C major, Op. 59 No. 3, is not quite in the same class though the very opening has real mystery and awe. In the Allegro vivace the leader permits himself a rare and, I must say, slight moment of indulgence, broadening a little at bar 27 at least the first time round, and the players linger over the cadential formula in bar 5. Incidentally, some listeners might legitimately feel that the whole movement could do with a little more momentum, though I must say that when I replayed it I felt there was much to be said for their unhurried and steady pace. On the other hand, they move the second movement on quite smartly and are much faster than the Busch. They by no means match their Allegro molto, yet how splendidly do they convey the pent-up torrent of energy unleashed in this fugal onrush. The only choice of tempo with which I would respectfully take issue is in fact this slow movement (Andante con moto quasi Allegretto), which as a result does not sound to me quite so immediate and fresh or so intensely felt as either of the outer ones: nor does the Menuetto attain the distinction of its companions. All the same, even if it does not command quite the same elevation of feeling or quality of inspiration that distinguishes the Op. 59 No. 1 Quartet, it is still pretty impressive.
The remaining two quartets, Opp. 74 and 95, are not new performances: on their first appearance RF in comparing them with the Gabrielis (Decca SDD551, 3/80) and the Quartello Italiano (Philips 6570 746, 4/82) opted overall for the Italians but found very little in it and added that ''there is nothing better on these discs as the two slow movements as done by the Lindsays''. I would certainly endorse that view and find little to choose between them and the Gabrielis in the Harp. The recording is somewhat more resonant in this than the Op. 59 set but throughout I have no quarrels with the sound picture, the balance or the surfaces which strike me as pretty exemplary. (I have not heard these performances in the cassette format.) In terms of recording alone, this set is superior to the Vegh and Talich and as I have intimated, artistically it can hold its own with the best.'