Audiences, performers and publishers were confused by the labyrinthine thought-processes of the late quartets, to such an extent that the Grosse Fuge, the original finale of the Quartet op.130, was separated from the work. Beethoven himself acknowledged the extreme complexity of the movement and agreed to compose a new finale. ‘The Talich were the first to impose the great Bohemian tradition on record. The impact made by their keen feeling for the different styles with which Beethoven experimented, their unfailing musicality, their innate sense of improvisation, and above all the extreme drama of their interpretations, remains as vivid as ever.’