It is not to be expected that CDs deriving from recordings of around 1970 will sound so vivid as more recent ones, but in fact these newly transferred DG discs do sound remarkably well and no one need feel he or she should fight shy of them. Perhaps the Beethoven piano trios are by a small margin the most pleasing in quality. Their string tone is remarkably full, and Kempff asserts his personality in a commanding and interesting way. As indeed does Ashkenazy on the rival EMI discs, though with his less forceful playing he does sound more of a chamber-music specialist. In any case I would myself prefer the Ashkenazy/Perlmann/Harrell discs because they alone include all the oddments Beethoven wrote for this combination, including the splendid Kakadu Variations which I would not want to be without. As you'd expect, they take one more disc, four instead of three, which would not deter me. Also, the Ashkenazy discs sometimes show more individuality. For instance their version of the Archduke scherzo has a pointilliste quality that is a delight. And they are excellent in the Op. 70 Trios which seem to me to be underplayed; No. 2 is the one with the ghostly Macbeth-inspired slow movement.
We find Kempff again asserting his personality on the Menuhin discs of Beethoven's violin sonatas. Around 1970 Menuhin was playing especially well, and Kempff is admirably crisp, though he does sometimes assert himself a little too much. On the Oistrakh/Philips discs Oborin is more reticent and better balanced but in consequence, perhaps, not quite so interesting. Menuhin is at his smoothest and silkiest in the lovely Spring Sonata—a little too leisurely, perhaps, in the slow movement—as also in the charming G major, Op. 96 which must be many people's favourite, and he is magnificent in the technical difficulties of the Kreutzer. (Unlike Oistrakh he makes all the repeats.) Occasionally the Menuhin discs reveal their age, and some of the early sonatas, for instance the A minor Op. 23, sound as though they are being played to a large audience in a concert hall; Oistrakh and Oborin better suggest a chamber-music atmosphere and are a shade better balanced. But in the rather naive but charming early pieces Beethoven wrote for violin and piano Menuhin tones down his personality and with great charm captures the simplicity of the Rondo (the main tune, was subsequently purloined by Kreisler, with alterations). The music sounds as though it had been intended for beginners and is none the worse for that, beginners need more pieces of this quality. The 12 variations are on the first of the arias Figaro sings in Mozart's opera, ''Se vuol ballare''. These have touches of sophistication, and Beethoven actually quotes the tune correctly; usually when writing variations on someone else's tune he wrote it down from memory and made a number of small mistakes.
The five string quartet discs listed above contain a dozen of the very best quartets of the great classical period. On the Melos discs I thought the cello a little over-favoured in the balance, but this is a good fault and some will think the better of them for it. In the Haydn Brainin's very fast semiquavers are beautifully precise and a joy to hear, for instance in the finale of the Op. 76 E flat which is surely Haydn's oddest quartet, though there are one or two passages where his cellist cannot quite match him for clarity, for instance in the finale of the D major, such passages are of course especially difficult on the cello. Brainin is nicely expressive in the slow movements, his rubato being beautifully judged, for instance, in this D major Quartet. The Melos leader is very able but sometimes sounds rather aloof in feeling, and in the slow movement of Mozart's C major, K465, he spoils the last climax by hurrying. In Haydn's Op. 76, the Tatrai Quartet discs (Hungaroton) are of remarkable quality considering they date from 1966; they were praised with unstinting enthusiasm by JOC, and I can only echo what she wrote. There are, I suggest, more sympathetic recordings of the Mozart, but the Melos discs gave me a lot of pleasure.'