[Review of The New Zealand String Quartet plays the complete Beethoven quartets]

Abstract

Five years ago the ambitious New Zealand String Quartet gave the first complete cycle of the Bartók quartets in this country to great acclaim. Now they have made an assault on perhaps the highest chamber music peak-the complete Beethoven string quartets. The undertaking was as demanding as it was bold, and the preparations the NZSQ had made for the cycle, by playing many of the individual works repeatedly over a period of years previously, paid dividends. This magnificent series of concerts was notable for the confidence of approach, for the knowing interplay of voices and for the sense of overall shape revealed in each work.