****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Of the 79 string quartets in the Kodaly Quartet's excellent Naxos box set, Hans Keller argues that 45 of these are master quartets -- works in which Haydn set standards of originality, expressiveness, and symphonic thought that Mozart and Beethoven themselves were challenged to match. The book is Keller's testy, highly informative guide to the interpretation of the "45," addressed to players of course, but the door is open to "mere listeners" as long as we can keep up with his arguments.It's a fascinating book for both players and failed violinists like myself, and in a contentious introduction, Keller's cartography of the great quartet composers, with Haydn as center and summit, is endlessly re-readable: after Haydn, there was Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn...and then almost nothing for the rest of the 19th century. 20th century quartet writing belongs to Schoenberg, Hindemith, Britten (it is implied), and Bartok (grudgingly); Shostakovich, of whose works Keller was certainly aware, isn't mentioned.
