Beethoven: String Quartet Nos. 7 & 8 (2004)

Amazingly, this 1941 Columbia recording of Beethoven's String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59/2, by the Busch Quartet has never been commercially released -- not just not released on CD or even not released on LP, but not released, period. The Busch Quartet, reconstituted in America after having fled fascist Europe, had been scheduled to record the work for Columbia in 1940, but leader Adolf Busch's on-stage heart attack set them back a year. Then, just as the recording was ready for release, RCA put out its own recording of the ... Read More

Amazingly, this 1941 Columbia recording of Beethoven's String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59/2, by the Busch Quartet has never been commercially released -- not just not released on CD or even not released on LP, but not released, period. The Busch Quartet, reconstituted in America after having fled fascist Europe, had been scheduled to record the work for Columbia in 1940, but leader Adolf Busch's on-stage heart attack set them back a year. Then, just as the recording was ready for release, RCA put out its own recording of the work by the Coolidge Quartet, and with shellac for records limited due to the war effort, the Busch's recording was shelved, as it turned out, nearly permanently, until this 2004 release.It is a marvelous record performance, surely one of the best the work has ever received. Why? It's not because of technical virtuosity -- listeners accustomed to the highly polished performances of later quartets may blanche at the players' occasional gaffes in intonation and technique. It's because... Read Less