Mozart,Haydn,Beethoven String Quartets......

I heartedly second Swklein's recommendation of recordings by the Mosaiques Quartet. Their Haydn is excellent, as are the recordings by the Kodály Quartet on Naxos.

My recommendations:
HAYDN
String Quartets Op. 76, Nos. 1-6
Kodály Quartet (Naxos)
Mosaïques Quartet (Naive Astrée)

BEETHOVEN
Tokyo or Emerson or Alban Berg Qts

MOZART
String Quartets, K387, K421(Haydn Quartets, disc 1)
Mosaiques Quartet (Naive Astrée)

String Quartets, K464, K465 ("Dissonance") (Haydn Quartets, disc 2)
Mosaiques Quartet (Naive Astrée)

I'm a little surprised that these recordings have not been recommended yet, but for the Beethoven String Quartets, I think the Guarneri Quartet's recordings are in a class by themselves.

There's also an interesting recording of the Mozart Quartets by the American String Quartet. The recordings were done using the "Axlerod" Stradivari instruments that are housed at the Smithsonian. The playing, and the sound, is fantastic.

Just my two cents. Regardless, I hope you enjoy listening to all of these great, great works.

I must agree: Guarneri Qt. is also great for Beethoven. I have some of their LPs, but not the CDs.

Scratch my vote on the cleveland quartet on Beethoven. For great sound recording and great performance the Naxos label, The Kodaly Quartet. The Tanayev Quartet plays excellent, but is "heavy" sounding vs the Kolady. The Kolady is more musical. Not sure, but i think Naxos has the complete Beethoven as a set. The Kolady does the complete Haydn , like 35 cd's!! Tweekerman

Wow...thanks to all...as usual...Audiogoners seem to really know their stuff...any thoughts on Schubert's "Death and the Maiden"? Also, as far as I know, Haydn pretty much perfected the genre...with Mozart and Beethoven following suite...are there are lesser known quartets that come to mind..I do have Borodin done by the Borodin quartet which is world class...any thoughts?