I purchased this disc to obtain the Tokyo String Quartet's riveting performance of Barber's String Quartet. The String Quartet is famous primarily because of its seeringly beautiful second movement, which was adapted for full string orchestra into the Adagio for Strings. In my opinion, the outer movements are unjustly neglected, and are certainly neglected in the CD catalog.A search on Amazon for "Barber String Quartet" yields only two current performances in the catalog (Emerson Quartet and the Beaux Arts String Quartet). There are other currently out-of-print performances that are available on the secondary market (e.g Lindsay Quartet, Chester Quartet, Endellion Quartet) and this CD didn't even make it into the search! (I plan to contact Amazon and make sure that problem is rectified.)I first became enamored with the entire Quartet in a live performance by the Stradivari Quartet, and I have followed the recording catalog for available performances. I owned performances by the Cleveland Quartet, the Concord String Quartet and, on CD, the Lindsay and Emerson Quartets mentioned above. I have also downloaded the performance of the Beaux Arts String Quartet. I have not yet heard the Endellion String Quartet or Chester String QuartetOf all performances I know, this recording by the Tokyo String Quartet is the most completely satisfying, though I wish the original Cleveland Quartet performance would be made available on CD.I cannot speak to the Takemitsu work on this disc or the Britten Quartet, but I highly recommend this disc for the Barber String Quartet in its entirety.