# Are you able to detect differences among major quartets?



## LAS (Dec 12, 2014)

I just finished listening to a CD of the Emerson quartet playing Mozart's Hunt and Dissonance quartets. I composed a comment for my CD database, "pleasantly homogenous in all movements." Might this be a known trait of the Emerson quartet? Do other major quartets have distinguishing traits?

tia
las


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2019)

i think you should first clarify if you are talking about mozart quartets or quartets in general; the best string quartet ensembles have indeed different characteristics; some ensembles have different approaches to each quartet belonging to a cycle like in the shostakovich quartets; they try to interpret the situation the composer was in when he penned his manuscript; other ensembles rely on their technical qualities (like the emerson qt) and give what you call homogeneous versions of a cycle; personally i like the musicians who study the lives and times of the composers and try to understand their state of mind but also understand the technical limitations they face in their lives; that is why i am not a fan of the emerson qt


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