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Title: Not so hot
Review: I have to disagree. This performance is best characterized by the old joke: "they're playing Bartok, and Bartok is losing." It's not the fault of the core TSQ members, but rather that of Oundjian, whose playing I find agressive rather than spirited or assertive. Better to save your money for the (also OOP) *first* TSQ recording which was released, for about fifteen minutes, by Deutsche Grammophon in the early 1990s. It's worth a long crawl through broken glass: luxuriant, warm, extremely intelligent, and reasonably well recorded. The only other performance that does these pieces justice - by making them beautiful as well as dynamic - is an LP released by RCA Victor in the late 1970s. The performers? The Guarneri String Quartet, whose performance may not be the equal of that put out by the original TSQ, but it is quite good. Too bad it has yet to be released on CD.
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