# Walter Levin



## Quartetfore (May 19, 2010)

Walter Levin passed away at the age of 93. He was a founding member of the famed LaSalle Quartet.His name may be not know to some, but after the LaSalle Quartet disbanded he become perhaps the most influential teacher in the String Quartet genre. Among the many groups that he taught are the Alban Berg Quartet, Casals Quartet,Doric Quartet.Artemis Quartet, and the Pavel Haas Quartet. I should also mention the Arditti Quartet and the conducter James Levine.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Walter Levin had great impact on understanding the relationship between the traditional and the present regarding the interpretation of anything, and how to keep it fresh and eternally evolving rather than existing as static museum pieces. He believed in the importance of keeping up the developments in contemporary music and the avant-garde, and kept pushing the music forward, reexaming everything that had gone on before from that new perspective. His freshness of insight was often a great revelation in whatever he performed. RIP.


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## Quartetfore (May 19, 2010)

Larkenfield said:


> Walter Levin had great impact on understanding the relationship between the traditional and the present regarding the interpretation of any music, and how to keep it fresh and eternally evolving rather than existing as static museum pieces. He kept pushing the music forward and would reexamine everything that had gone on before from that new perspective. His freshness of insight was often a great revelation. RIP.


I could not agree more. Is this the Sedona of Red Rock fame? If so I spent a few days there.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Quartetfore said:


> I could not agree more. Is this the Sedona of Red Rock fame? If so I spent a few days there.


Hi, Quartetfore. Yes, I've lived in Sedona for the past 24 years and worked as a jazz musician on alto sax. Being here is like inhabiting the surface of Mars because of the spectaclar red rocks that dominate the landscape. Full of lively and spirited women too.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Nice to see someone made a topic, here in my / his home country just one line in the newspapers.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I've been listening to LaSalle play op 132 (Beethoven), not the studio recording for DG but an unreleased concert performance form 1965. It is really experimental, they take 36 minutes for the whole quartet, 12,30 for the Heiliger Dankgesang, and they say they arrived at their tempos by observing indications in the manuscript. It's a revelation I think, if you want the recording please PM me.


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## Quartetfore (May 19, 2010)

Mandryka said:


> I've been listening to LaSalle play op 132 (Beethoven), not the studio recording for DG but an unreleased concert performance form 1965. It is really experimental, they take 36 minutes for the whole quartet, 12,30 for the Heiliger Dankgesang, and they say they arrived at their tempos by observing indications in the manuscript. It's a revelation I think, if you want the recording please PM me.


this must be the Concord of performances. I looked at the timing of the three recordings that I have. the Takacs-17.10, Emerson 17.51, and the slow poke Quartetto Italiano 19.31. I find that for a number of Beethovens Quartets they are a bit slower. Thank you for your kind offer, and yes I would like to hear the recording. How can this be done?


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> I've been listening to LaSalle play op 132 (Beethoven), not the studio recording for DG but an unreleased concert performance form 1965. It is really experimental, they take 36 minutes for the whole quartet, 12,30 for the Heiliger Dankgesang, and they say they arrived at their tempos by observing indications in the manuscript. It's a revelation I think, if you want the recording please PM me.


On the studio recording, the Heiliger Dankgesang movement is 14:53. Still faster than most, if not nearly as fast as the live performance. The whole quartet times out at around 40 minutes in the studio.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The commentator to the French radio programme which broadcast the live op 132 said that the closest commercially available timing is Alban Berg Quartet, who were pupils of LaSalle.

Has anyone looked into the tempo indications in Beethoven's manuscript for op 132. Are there MM? Hopefully KenOC will see this and have the answer.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Pugg said:


> Nice to see someone made a topic, here in my / his home country just one line in the newspapers.


He was Born in Germany.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

wkasimer said:


> On the studio recording, the Heiliger Dankgesang movement is 14:53. Still faster than most, if not nearly as fast as the live performance. The whole quartet times out at around 40 minutes in the studio.


The Leipzig Quartet take this quartet pretty fast.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Triplets said:


> He was Born in Germany.


Your right I was thinking of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> The Leipzig Quartet take this quartet pretty fast.


I looked at a bunch of timings of this movement, courtesy of Amazon. The only one I found close to the live LaSalle was the Leipzig, at 12:53. There were a couple of others under 15 minutes - Fine Arts, Terpsycordes, Petersen. The rest run between 16 and 19+ minutes.

The live LaSalle doesn't feel particularly rushed.


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

Sad news. The LaSalle was a fine group; their recordings of the 2nd Viennese School quartets is a staple in my library. Highly recommended. Thanks for sharing this.


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