Cypress String Quartet - Beethoven: The Early String Quartets (2016)

The Cypress String Quartet, based out of San Francisco, CA, has been working on a series of recordings of the complete string quartets of Beethoven, with the quartet's first violinist, Cecily Ward, listed as producer of the recordings. This set of the op. 18 quartets fills out their recorded survey. Interestingly, the quartet essentially went in "reverse order" with respect to issuing their recordings, in that the op. 18 quartets are, of course, the earliest of the Beethoven quartets, but this 2-CD set is the last of the Cypress Quartet's recordings of the cycle to be issued. Their album of the late quartets was first, and the album of the middle quartets was, fittingly, in the middle

The earlier sets from the Cypress Quartet of their Beethoven series have generally been favorably received, and rightly so. With perhaps one modest exception, the same trend continues here. Their series has featured a trademark overall ethos of fresh, crisp, straightforward, and no-nonsense interpretations which wear their virtuosity lightly. In other words, except for the occasional odd nudge of tempo, these recordings are generally are all about Beethoven, and not about the musicians themselves.

The one exception to the stellar standards, at least IMHO, seems to come particularly in the first movement of op. 18, no. 6, where things start well, but then the interpretation seems to develop a rather heavy weather feel about it, and just lacks a bit the spring in its step that this reviewer is used to hearing from this quartet's other recordings. This also spills over into the slow movement, again IMHO, but the spirit picks up again in the 3rd and 4th movement. This seems to bring the level of interpretation of this quartet as a whole down a notch from the other quartets. Your own listening mileage may vary, of course.

BTW, it should be noted that the quartets on this album don't follow strict sub-opus number order. CD 1 contains nos. 1, 2 and 6, while CD 2 contains nos. 3, 4, and 5. The reason is practical, namely that the duration of no. 6 was too long to go in simple order (i.e. nos. 1-3 on CD 1, and nos. 4-6 on CD 2). The packaging is also in a slimline 2-CD set jewel case, rather than the wider 2-CD box.

Even with that one personal reservation about op. 18, no. 6, that isn't enough to warrant withholding a star from the overall evaluation of this set . If you have been collecting the Cypress Quartet's set of Beethoven quartet recordings to date, then you need not hesitate.