Guarneri Quartet retiring

I just heard that the Guarneri Quartet is retiring this year. Ordinarily, I would not take much note of such news, because although I've enjoyed the occasional Guarneri Quartet recording I've heard over the years, it's not a quartet I've seen live or had some special fondness for. But, this news came to me while the Guarneri Quartet by chance happened to be fresh in my mind, in a way.

First, while I was going through my LP collection several days ago, I happened to examine my 3-LP set of Brahms' three piano quartets and Schumann's piano quintet recorded by Artur Rubinstein and a young Guarneri Quartet in 1967. I had decided to keep this set, the source of my first exposure to these particular works, and therefore something of a sentimental favorite.

Second, while I had been Googling to see if there existed a CD reissue of this LP set (the answer was yes), I had found that Rubinstein and the Guarneri Quartet had also recorded Mozart's piano quartets, so I had checked the CD out of the local library and had listened to parts of it just a couple of days ago.

I have to confess that the performances were not to my taste. I favor a quicker, more dramatic interpretation of Mozart. I like how in the past two decades, period instrument scholarship and practice have resulted in very exciting, revitalized performances of music from Bach to Beethoven, both on period instruments and on modern instruments.

I guess all I'm saying here is that re-examining my music collection has led me to discard some recordings, while saving other recordings, from the past. Nothing stands still, not even the past and our appreciation of or criticism of it.