(++++) AS ADEPT AS ALWAYS

The Best 390 Colleges, 2025. By Robert Franek with David Soto, Stephen Koch, Aaron Riccio, Laura Rose, and the staff of The Princeton Review. Princeton Review/Penguin Random House. $26.99.

     Ralph Waldo Emerson is consistently misquoted as having said that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” when what he really wrote (in Self-Reliance, in prose that almost scans as poetry) was “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Consistency of the unfoolish sort can in fact be something quite admirable, and it is this type that is offered year after year by The Princeton Review’s encyclopedic college guides – including the 2025 version, whose college count continues a slightly odd tradition of its own by being one number higher than in the previous year (390 schools profiled for 2025, with 389 for 2024, 388 in the book’s 2023 version, 387 for 2022, 386 in 2021, and 385 for 2020). The price of the 2025 guide remains the same as a year ago, another welcome snippet of consistency and perhaps an indicator of moderating inflationary pressures (although using that as an economic indicator tips over into “foolish consistency” territory).

     The Best 390 Colleges, 2025 is in fact a once-over-not-too-lightly exploration of only 7% or so of the 5,000-plus schools of higher education in the United States, or (as the book itself says) “only the top 13 percent of the approximately 3,000 four-year colleges in the nation.” Of course, as Harvard’s Tom Lehrer pointed out six decades ago, stats are in the mind of the beholder (he actually said “filth…is in the mind of the beholder,” but hey, who’s paying attention?). The relevant point here, in any case, is that despite its heft (some 900 oversize pages), this book is a sampling rather than a comprehensive presentation. It is, however, a very well-organized and well-produced sampling, and the two-page “How We Produce This Book” introduction is as good a place as any to start mining the nuggets of knowledge buried in it.

     There is a lot to dig up here, not because the book is difficult to explore – a great deal of work has gone into making it as easy to use as possible – but because every family’s needs, desires and hopes where college is concerned are so different. By presenting each school in exactly the same way, on two pages with central “Students Say,” “The Princeton Review Says” and “The School Says” sections and marginalia giving data on everything from total and broken-down-by-categories enrollment to financial realities, The Best 390 Colleges, 2025 lets families do side-by-side comparisons to help them evaluate the pluses and minuses of specific schools. As a matter of fact, one of these days it wouldn’t hurt to have a page-perforated version of this book, since each family will be interested in only a handful of these many colleges and one of the best ways to cross-compare them is to tear out the schools’ respective pages so as to be able literally to view them side by side. That gets messy.

     The key to the most-effective use of The Best 390 Colleges, 2025 is to narrow down the list of schools worth considering so as not to be overwhelmed by the sheer heft of the book and the sheer amount of data it contains. The book itself makes this easy for students and families already focused on specific fields of study, thanks to a section called “Great Schools for 21 of the Most Popular Undergraduate Majors” – everything from A (accounting) to P (psychology). There are other lists as well, lots of them: “Best Classroom Experience,” “Most Accessible Professors,” “Friendliest Students,” “Best College Radio Station,” even “Lots of Beer” and “Pot’s Not Hot” (contrasted with “Reefer Madness”). And there are lists focusing on career placement, alumni networks, entrepreneurship, even game design. There is also some very useful back-of-the book information, including an index by location (crucial for families limited to specific geographic regions by choice or necessity), an index by tuition costs (crucial to just about everybody), and a listing, in addition to the titular 390 schools, of 241 regional colleges “that we consider academically outstanding and well worth consideration in your college search” – although anyone interested in these schools will have to reach out to them directly, since details on them are not provided.

     The point for the latest edition of this always-excellent guide is consistent with the point of previous editions: the start of the search for a good match of college to student lies outside the book, with student and family consideration of what factors matter the most for each individual’s specific situation. After a decision is made on the individual factors that are most important, a review of the various lists in The Best 390 Colleges, 2025 makes it possible to narrow down the choosing process to schools meeting the desired criteria – and then, and only then, does it make sense to turn to the pages offering detailed information and commentary on each school. The Best 390 Colleges, 2025 is neither a starting point nor an end point in the college search – it exists on the middle ground between figuring out a focus and actually applying to whatever number of schools students and families decide would be worthwhile. The book, year after year, delivers on its underlying premise with well-designed, easy-to-use layout and presentation and solid, data-driven analysis, and does it all with a consistency that is anything but foolish.

(++++) A STRONG SENSE OF FLOW

Beethoven: The Middle String Quartets—Op. 59, Nos. 1-3; Op. 74; Op. 95. Calidore String Quartet (Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violins; Jeremy Barry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello). Signum Classics. $37.99 (3 CDs).

     The release-in-reverse Signum Classics cycle of the Beethoven string quartets by the Calidore String Quartet, which started with the late quartets rather than the early ones, approaches the middle quartets – which are the middle release no matter what order a complete set appears in – with the same mixture of meticulous ensemble playing and convincing (if sometimes unusual) tempo choices that pervaded the players’ handling of the late quartets. Theirs are performances with tremendous attention to nuance and detail, not only in the music itself but also in their technique – for instance, the quartet members not only play with carefully matched vibrato but also avoid vibrato altogether from time to time, also as a group, thus changing the character of the music without altering the notes or tempo in any way.

     Beethoven’s tempo markings for his quartets (and other music) continue to provoke discussion and dissension, the consensus being that they are often simply too fast to allow the music the breadth that seems inherent in it. The Calidore players make an effective argument, purely on a musical basis, that this is not necessarily so. The opening Allegro of Op. 59, No. 1, and the concluding Allegro molto of Op. 59, No. 3, to cite two examples, are played at or close to Beethoven’s metronome indications, and the movements not only work but also show just how revolutionary the “Razumovsky” quartets were in their time. In fact, at this pace and with this precision, the quartets have an impact that makes them, despite their familiarity nowadays, sound new again.

     Nor do the Calidore players always proceed at near-breakneck speed; this is scarcely a monochromatic set of interpretations. The third-movement Allegretto of Op. 59, No. 2, for example, is paced quickly but not overly so, and here the performers emphasize the attractive syncopations to very fine effect. And the Andante con moto quasi allegretto second movement of Op. 59, No. 3, although it moves a bit too quickly for a sense of dreaminess, is effective through its finely honed dynamic contrasts and excellently accented ensemble.

     The slower movements are attentively handled throughout, if perhaps not always quite as convincingly as the speedier ones. The Adagio molto e mesto of Op. 59, No. 1, and Molto adagio of Op. 59, No. 2, are suitably tender but not always emotionally deep, although the emotive first-violin climax in No. 1 glows with intensity that is not always evident earlier in the movement. Interestingly, the Adagio ma non troppo second movement of Op. 74 (“Harp”) seems a bit too slow to sustain well, but it does, thanks to highly lyrical playing that does not overstep into too-Romantic excess. In the notoriously difficult-to-fathom Op. 95 (“Serioso”), the outer movements are outstanding, packed with intense drive while still possessing occasional flickers of soon-extinguished cantabile material – this performance fully highlights the emotional as well as technical complexity of the work. The middle movements are not quite as convincing: the peculiarly marked third movement, Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso, is actually a bit on the slow side, rendering its mixture of forms (a kind of march/dance) less apparent. But it is important to note here, as in the Calidore’s recording of the late quartets, that every single nitpick of these versions is a nitpick: there is precious little here that does not work on its own terms, and in fact the players’ sit-up-and-take-notice approach again and again sheds new light on the music and justifies their handling of it even when what they do is a bit outside the performance mainstream. As in their recording of the late quartets, the sheer technical prowess of the Calidore String Quartet is everywhere on display here, their interpretative abilities shine through again and again, and the commitment and excellence of ensemble that pervade this release place it among the very best recordings of this repertoire available today.