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Beethoven String Quartets Op. 127 & 132

Classical

Hagen Quartett Format: Audio CD
4.8 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
$10.06
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Beethoven: String Quartets, Opp. 127 & 132 Amazon Music Unlimited
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Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 4.97 x 0.54 inches; 2.83 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Deutsche Grammophon
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ September 2, 2000
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Deutsche Grammophon
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000A3VTSE
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • M. Barker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves much better reviews -- and more open minds
    Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2012
    Ouch... not much love for the Hagens here on Amazon. Pity.

    There are enough recordings, particularly of Beethoven quartets, that there is something for everybody. Yes, for many the standard Beethoven tradition lies with quartets such as the Guarneri, Vermeer, and Alban Berg, or further back with the Budapest and Busch quartets. Some friends of mine swear by the Cleveland Qt, and others are smitten with the new Artemis cycle. All have their merits, and it's not for me to tell someone what they like to hear.

    What can be a bit tiresome though is sitting through the same interpretations over and over, and for some of us the chance to hear a fresh spin on the old war horses is more than welcome. Enter the Hagen Quartet. The Hagens have been recording Beethoven off and on for the past three decades now and their approach has stayed relatively the same: lean and direct, with fleet tempos and less vibrato. Think of them as a quartet version of the historically informed performance practice interpreters of Beethoven symphonies, such as Gardiner, Mackerras, Abbado, etc. Understandably, this evokes some passionate vitriol from folks that like their Beethoven on the meaty side, or from people looking for Furtwangler-esque spirituality in the late quartets. There are lots of recordings like those out there, and this is not one of them.

    Also, I'm not quite sure where all these remarks about technical ineptitude are coming from. Nobody who listens to a lot of Beethoven is going to mistake Lukas Hagen for Arnold Steinhardt or Shmuel Ashkenasi, but this is far tighter ensemble playing than virtually any Beethoven recordings I have heard, and I've heard just about them all. At any rate, if you like Beethoven that is crisp, streamlined, and well-executed then this is a really fantastic recording, as are the rest of the Hagen's Beethoven and Schubert discs.
    21 people found this helpful
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  • Huntley Dent
    3.0 out of 5 stars Why are these quartets so underplayed?
    Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2008
    It's hard to make Muzak out of late Beethoven, but the Hagens seem determined to smooth out all of the composer's most jagged, daring and risky ideas. Every movement here is underplayed, which came as quite a surprise to me. I had associated the Hagen Qt. with edgy, self-conscious, often aggressive interpretations. Here they merrily zip along the surface -- listen to the brief Alla marcia fourth movement of Op. 132 -- in a way that even the fleet, modernist Emerson Qt. doesn't.

    Perhaps the intent was to make Beethoven sound more "classical," a category his late works hardly fit into. One expects maximum intensity in the Adagio of Op. 132, but to the Hagens Beethoven's great hymn of praise is a pastoral stroll. Everyone's entitled to their opinion about Beethoven style nowadays, but to my ears these readings come dangerously close to trivialization.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • opernfan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beethovens revolutionäre Tonsprache
    Reviewed in Germany on September 8, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Das Hagen Quartett führt uns in diesen beiden späten Streichquartetten vor, wie modern Beethoven schon war - man kann sich kaum vorstellen, wie das für die Zeitgenossen geklungen haben muss. Beethoven hat sich hier schon sehr weit von der "klassischen" Klangsprache entfernt, die Form scheint sich an vielen Punkten quasi aufzulösen und die Hagens betonen diese "zentrifugalen" Kräfte: sie finden hierfür einen sehr klaren Klang, schärfen die Dynamik und Kontraste der Werke und machen mit einem eher vibratoarmen Klang neue Aspekte des Werkes deutlich. Gerade im Quartett a-moll hört man viele Passagen ganz neu, so z.B. im zweiten Satz, wenn sich aus dem tastenden der Musik heraus zaghaft das traumhafte Thema erhebt (das ABQ spielt dieses Thema viel "selbstbewusster", schöngeistiger) und sofort wieder abzubrechen droht. Und das Adagio (die eigentliche Danksagung eines Genesenden) klingt vielfach fahl, fast taumelnd, als ob hier wirklich ein Schwerkranker noch einmal davon gekommen ist und fast staunend neu in die Welt schaut. Auch der letzte Satz ist viel zaghafter als sonst, kein üblicher Kehraus.
    Ähnlich überzeugend das Quartett op. 127.
    Als Alternative zu den großen Interpretationen z.B. eines ABQ sehr empfehlenswert, weil im wahrsten Sinne neue Töne hörbar werden.
    Wer die Hagens im Jahr 2013 übrigens hört, wird die Erfahrung machen, dass sie heute noch kompromissloser, radikaler sind und die Werke noch reduzierter auf den Ausdrucksgehalt spielen.
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