Tokyo String Quartet
"Schubert: Death & the Maiden, Quartettstatz" (Vinyl)

The Tokyo String Quartet was my first truly professional quartet concert that I saw. At the time they were still 3/4 of their original members with Peter Oundjian playing first violin.
Since then I've always regarded the Tokyo quartet as one of the finest quartets of their generation. Whether this could really hold true in a more mature analysis, I don't really care to know.

This performance is great, of course, but the recording itself is puzzling. Either there's something wrong with my stereo this morning or there's a very "covered" sensibility to the record, which makes it feel as though half of the recorded range is being dampened.
This record came out in 1983, (simultaneously available on chromium-dioxide cassette!) and I fear that at the dawn of the age of widespread digital recording the production considerations for analog formats like vinyl were being pushed aside.