Barnes & Noble

Few of us have the time to listen to all of Beethoven's music. Exploring his 16 string quartets, however, offers the perfect overview, providing a concise survey of the composer's development and revealing some of his deepest musical thoughts. In the early quartets, Beethoven steps up to the plate, showing off his contrapuntal skill and formal ingenuity within the boundaries of the classical forms laid down by his great predecessors Haydn and Mozart, while injecting his own brand of moody humor and dramatic contrast. In the middle quartets, we meet the "heroic" Beethoven of the Fifth Symphony. This is no longer chamber music for the drawing room but a series of orchestrally conceived public orations, seemingly infinite in their variety of mood and affect. In the late quartets, Beethoven retreats into a hermetic world in which the entire history of Western music, from the lowliest march to the loftiest fugue, is at once summarized and transformed into its future state. Taken as a whole, these 16 works are the bible of chamber music, and the Emersons are their most persuasive preachers. The ensemble reveals every strand of Beethoven's invention. Their unflagging energy in the fast movements never fails to excite, while their unwavering concentration in the slow movements never fails to touch the soul. Howard Goldstein

Gramophone

The Emerson give us playing of exceptional technical accomplishment and an unusually wide expressive range. They continually offer new insights into some endlessly enthralling music. Do hear them. Duncan Druce