Takacs Quartet

As compositions they truely are incredible. To those of you who normallly shy away from non-tonal music (which of course there will be very few, having clicked on Bartok in the first place) LISTEN TO THIS!!! You will be converted! These peices are a composer gripped with incredible passion. There is not a contrived, cold or dull moment in the entire 2 and a half hours of listening to these discs. His attention to the most small of details, subtle qualities and potential of all four instruments is unsurpassed.

The performance is equally as incredible. These four instrumentalists play technically and emotionally in ways and to extremes that i never thought possible (credit as much to the composer as to the performers.) They play with vigour, speed, delicacy and charged emotion. Their minds are tuned into one another in a way that i have never heard or felt before; they become ONE incredible voice. They obviously know the music backwards (probably born with it, and together.)

My extensive knowledge on other performances of these works i can sum up simply by telling you that i have spent many hours under shop headphones in pursuit of the BEST (if it were at all possible to better it.) But from whatever way i looked at them i couldn't beat this one. And to think... that i was sold to it by the cover!

As far as the recording goes that too is perfect. Crisp, warm and perfectly balanced on any speaker... and i have personally put it through a vigourous testing schedule; anyone who is even remotely conected to me and has a cd and speaker system of any shape, size or quality has undergone the entire "BARTOK 6 STRING QUARTETS EXPERIENCE." To say that everyone was one over by my intense BARTOK grinding sessions would be a lie, but one thing is for sure... they have never heard anything in quite the same way since.

The Thème Russe last movement of the Razumovsky No 1 on the other hand is a model of restraint, the playful parts entering from all angles with delightful measured precision, polished and perfect. The Takacs' music breathes as if in a meditative trance the broad, shallow arch of the molto adagio which lasts a satisfying quarter-hour in Razumovsky No 2. The four play best what is calculated and intricate like the theme and variations which conclude the Harp Quartet, giving each episode a distinct flavour. Variety is more important than usual on one-composer recordings such as this and the members of the Takacs Quartet prove themselves contemplative Beethovenians who occasionally mistake the gallop for a stampede. --Rick Jones
simply faultless - and interesting as well!, 2009-02-26
I play in an amateur string quartet and recently we've been working on Op. 59/1. BBC3's CD review picked the Takacs a couple of weeks ago as best for the Op. 95 'Serioso' Quartet, so I bought this 2-CD set with the Rasumovskys expecting it to be good, and it sure is! Each player is an individual and all are interesting (lovely viola playing, for example), but the ensemble and the extent to which the performances have been thought-through are just as impressive. Some of the work is really virtuosic (how does the first violin, Edward Dusinberre, manage the ornamental passage-work at the end of the first movement of Op. 74 at that hair-raising speed?) but quiet and lyrical moments are just as impressive and the slow movements of all four quartets are really lovely. No wonder this Quartet has won so many plaudits. At this ridiculously small price, these two CDs are a real bargain (there's a good multi-language booklet with them and useful notes by Misha Donat). If this is music you like, no need to hesitate! I see 'The Gramophone' Classical CD Guide rates it right at the top too.