The Tokyo Quartet

The Tokyo Quartet: Beethoven: The "Late" Quartets

by AAJ Staff
November 23, 2010

Just as any real and informed music fan is familiar with the Duke Ellington “Blanton Webster Band," Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959), and Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens recordings, so should they also be immersed in Beethoven's famous late string quartets. There are pre-echoes of twentieth century popular music harmony here, but additionally, there is a depth that travels beyond music. These late quartets--said to summarize all Beethoven's musical explorations--have been recorded by the ...