There aren't too many ways to go about fitting three string quartets from all three of Beethoven's style periods onto a single disc, but this 1992 recording by the
Raphael Quartet has done it. Here are the shorter of the Opus 18 quartets, the shortest of the Opus 59 quartets, and the single-movement Opus 133 Grosse Fuge, programmed one after another, and, viola!, instant Beethoven quartet overview. As portrayed by the superlative
Raphael Quartet, Beethoven was a charming if sometimes emotional young man in the Op. 18/6, a robust if occasionally morose middle aged man in Op. 59/3, and a vigorous if frequently vertiginous old man in Opus 133. The
Raphael is wonderfully warm and totally together in the early quartet, magnificently powerful and immensely aggressive in the middle quartet, and incredibly muscular, rigorously intellectual, and, strange as it might sound, unbelievably playful in the late quartet. Captured in producer Klaas A. Posthuma's brilliantly colorful and amazingly life-like sound, this recording will reward anyone who knows and loves Beethoven's quartets -- or anyone who just wants to try a single disc overview of them all.