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Takacs Complete Beethoven Quartets (part 3)

B. Edwards | 08/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the 3rd part of my full review of the Takacs Beethoven string quartets. Part 1 is for the Opus18 Quartets and Part 2 for the middle quartets.



I am a Busch Quartet Lover (as are the Takacs players themselves) so those quartets loom in the back of my mind as the standard against which other performances are measured. Since the Busch performances were loved against years of listening to many other quartets as well, it is high praise for the Takacs that I consider the Takacs often their equal, and on some occasions (op59 no3) even superiour.



With the late quartets the Takacs come into competition with a well recorded (for 1930s) Busch performance on every quartet (except the full No13). Fortunately, the Takacs took these on at the last, and their style and insight has certainly matured. The "crescendo effect" I complained about in my other reviews is mostly gone here, and they generally seem more in touch with the emotional centre of the music. Furthermore, Duisinberre has for the most part laid off the heavy vibrato he sometimes brought to slow movements on the earlier discs.



The Takacs popularity is in large part to the variety of qualities they bring to the music. Many quartets have strengths in certain areas, such as great fire, sublime sensitivity, immaculate technique, superb dynamics...but very rarely does a quartet come along that is strong in so many of these areas at once, as the Takacs are. In my previous reviews I complained that their only "lack" was that they sometimes seemed distant to the essence of the music in a way my favourite quartet, the Busch, never seems to be.



In this final set of their cycle, they mostly correct this, and their performances for the most part take on the great authority of classics. Still, they are not (most of the time) in the same league as the Busch yet, either in emotional depth or, in particular, their ability to play in unison when called for. The uncanny way the Busch can blend into one sound at certain moments really gives them an extra edge when they need it. At those moments I often found myself slightly dissapointed with the Takacs when, remembering a moment where the Busch pulled out an extraordinary sonority for great effect, the Takacs, though playing with all their heart, still sounded like 4 individual instruments scraping away in not an entirely sure fashion.



Op95 starts off chock full of Takacs strengths: lively phrasing, varied textures, rippling fire, immaculate technique and dynamics. The first movement does not quite have the ripping tragedy that the Busch do, but still is very gripping.



No12 manages to outdo the Busch at times in sheer power and masterful melodic articulation. The long slow movement is very beautifully done and the scherzo amazes with its ferocity. The last movement slightly dissapoints near the end. The Busch make great use of their unified textural sonority to sustain the wild arpeggios, such that the piece ends leaving one exhilarated. The Takacs leave dynamic gaps here and the music sort of lurches to the finish in a dissapointing way.



No13 is only available in a poor Sony recording from 1943 by the Busch, one that omits the Grosse Fugue as well. Poor recording and all, noone has ever come close to understanding the first part of this quartet in the way the Busch do. The natural tempos and phrasing of the lonely 'horn calls' in the first movement makes the development section like falling into a well of amazing emotional depth. The Takacs are altogether more pensive, almost sweet. They try to turn this movement inward, rather self conscious and psychological, and it really pales compared to the Busch.



Great firey 2nd movement from Takacs as expected.



3rd movement gets it typical laid back Schumannian whimsy from the Takacs. O how infinitely better is the natural Busch rendering, with Adolf catching that wild central gypsy melody on the wing such that you won't get it out of your head for days. Takacs are snoozers here.



The Takacs catch up on the slow movement. Perhaps taking the warning that Beethoven called this short piece "my greatest work of chambermusic" they give it great gravitas and concentration, shaping the alternating passages with loving intensity. That sweeps forward into a nearly hysterical, and amazingly played Grosse Fugue, after which the monster quartet is finished off with Beethovens alternate ending. The Takacs really fly through this piece and its brilliant, much more becoming than the Busch laid back tempo.



So, if for quartet No 13 I could have the Busch upto the slow movement, then Takacs the rest of the way including the fugue, I would be in bliss, but life is not so simple!



I'd like to continue but am running out of space. Basically quartets 14 and 15, while not quite in the same league as the Busch for some of the aforesaid reasons, are still very great performances, ones that complement the Busch very well and are occassionally better. For slow movement lovers, the variations from no14, while very fine, misses alot of the profound emotional transformation that the Busch capture in the silences and amazing pure tonal sonorities. The Heilegen Danksang from No15 is just wonderfully done by the Takacs, perhaps even as good as the Busch, which is saying alot. No16 is as good or even better than the Busch. I think the Takacs make even more sense out of it. Rather like the 8th symphony it is full of Beethoven at his most wierdly personal and subtle and overall the Takacs catch the spirit of the melody better than the Busch.



All in all, a mostly triumphant finish for the Takacs. For a complete set with a modern recording the Takacs would certainly be my first choice, though as I have often stated the old Busch recordings (of half the quartets) for the most part still scale this music the highest.



But we are spoilt for choice. We can own all sorts of recordings of this wonderful music, wandering all the interesting and unique ways to the one musical core."

The Takacs Quartet is rapidly becoming one of my favorites

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 04/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although various string quartets seem to excel with one particular set of quartets, until now there has only been one string quartet that I was willing to trust with just about any composer and that was the Italian String Quartet. Almost everything they chose to record was special and their discs are invariably among the finest of whatever work is under consideration. Along with the Vegh, their recording of Beethoven's late quartets was my favorite.



Now, however, the Takacs Quartet is beginning to rival the Italian Quartet for me. I previously knew them for their superb recording of the Bartok Quartets (which rival my previous favorite recording by the Tokyo String Quartet, a group towards whom I am deeply biased from having heard the original line up perform the entire cycle a couple of decades ago when they were artists in residence in Connecticut). Their handling of Beethoven is simply perfect. The performance is perhaps a tad less exuberant than the Vegh but they play far more precisely than the Vegh, while they are warmer and less regally remote than the Italian. The recording is wonderfully detailed. But aside from these virtues, I find the pricing of the set to be remarkable. Although the Italian and Vegh versions are a few decades old at this point, they are both more expensive than this new Takacs version. For anyone wanting to obtain a set of the Late Quartets for the first time, there really shouldn't be much of a debate: this set equals any of its competitors musically and surpasses them in terms of price.



A number of reviewers have noted problems with labeling. I have no such problem with my discs, though clearly there clearly was an error at the factory for so many reviewers to have had the same problem. However, there must be a sharp distinction drawn between a problem at the factory and the quality of these performances. This set clearly has to be considered among the very finest ever made of Beethoven's late quartets."