Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven String Quartet No. 16 / Missa in Tempore - DVD

Released for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray, Leonard Bernstein's interpretations of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 and Haydn's Missa in tempore belli are quite superb. Only the strings of the Vienna Philharmonic could carry off the orchestral rendition of Beethoven's opus 135 with bravura, since each player is a true soloist. Bernstein and the orchestra wanted to play a difficult Beethoven Quartet in a monster setting, achieving a truly exciting performance unlike anything one ever hears.

Recorded in late 2020 at the Philharmonie in Paris, home city of Quatuor Ébène, this complete DVD cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets, directed by Sébastien Glas, complements the complete audio cycle recorded by the Ébène in 2019 and early 2020; entitled Beethoven Around the World, the CDs drew on performances in Paris and six other great cities on five continents. The impact of the Ébène's approach to Beethoven - both exhilarating and illuminating - was summed up by the respected magazine The Strad, which spoke of Inchwhite-hot interpretative intensity and fantasyInch as the players Inchpeel back layers of stultifying accretion and rediscover the shock value of this music for a contemporary audience... they play not as they should, but as they feel they must.Inch

Starring Jirí Zigmund, Jan Schulmeister, Ales Kasprík.