Classical Music for Aficionados

I’ve begun a project of listening to the Beethoven string quartets. So far I’ve listened to op. 18. Quartets. Beethoven’s genius is palpable in these works.  He devoured the classical style whole and spit out masterpieces that surpassed even Haydn and Mozart in invention. And this is to mention only one genre he worked with.

I am on the same opinion as you for sure...

Beethoven add something to the quatuor genre very few can rival if some can...

I like a lot  Robert Simpsons quatuors i begun to explore after i read his book about Bruckner...

 For Beethoven quatuor i like a lot Talich, but i must go with your advice i think :

Regarding the Op. 18 works, I prefer: 1) ensembles who play them big and bold, and not like embryonic Mozart; and 2) Vibrato, please.  I really dislike Quartets that eschew all vibrato (and coincidentally play at crazy speeds) and completely blow the expressive effects of the music.

  My longstanding favorites are the Hungarian Quartet (stereo version)) and the Cleveland Quartet.  Most of the more modern recordings I’ve heard are HIPP and therefore excluded by at least one of my criteria 

I just listened to the Hogwood version of the Mozart Requiem on my compromised speakers. I hadn’t heard this version previously. From what I could tell, it’s a really fine reading. The “Lacrymosa” is a bit shocking in its original version, quite different from Sussmeyer’s arrangement.  
My first encounter with the Requiem was with Krips and the Vienna Choir Boys. I literally wore out three LP’s, playing it every day for a very long time.  Such is my reverence for the work and Mozart.
My subwoofers should be installed tomorrow. Can’t wait to hear the Hogwood with them working.

Don’t know the Krips record that you referenced and I really can’t remember my first recording of the Mozart Requiem .  A late mono Walter was the only lp that I had; it’s usually Jordi Savall that turn to now

Don’t know the Krips record that you referenced and I really can’t remember my first recording of the Mozart Requiem .  A late mono Walter was the only lp that I had; it’s usually Jordi Savall that turn to now

Well, I had the amps replaced, and when the technician was through he noticed the polarity of the speaker cables was the conventional red to red and black to black formation. It just so happens that my Conrad-Johnson preamp is phase inverting, which means the cables should be black to black on one speaker and on the other speaker black to RED. I have known this since I bought the preamp many moons ago. But somehow (I don’t know when) the cables were reversed in the wrong formation.
All of a sudden the sound opened up magnificently when I played my records.
So, the bad turned into the good!