Béla Bartók: The 6 String Quartets - Takács Quartet

Bela Bartok (Orchestra), Edward Dusinberre (Artist), Andras Fejer (Artist), Karoly Schranz (Artist), Roger Tapping (Artist), Takács Quartet (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Bela Bartok
• Audio CD (January 13, 1998)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B0000042GU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,847 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1998

If chamber music suggests merely sedate and timid pleasures, let the Takács Quartet guide you through the profound experience that this medium can convey--above all in the hands of a composer as rich in imagination and innovative in temperament as Béla Bartók. In some ways his cycle of string quartets traces not only his personal creative evolution but the deeply tragic zeitgeist of half a century as well. The Takács Quartet plays with an unfaltering sense for the lifeblood of this music in performances that are both gutsy and ethereal. --Thomas May

Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 13-JAN-1998

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible performances in the Vegh Qt tradition..., January 15, 2001

By 

C. Noble (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Béla Bartók: The 6 String Quartets - Takács Quartet (Audio CD)

For years I was a card-carrying devotee of the Emerson Quartet's Grammy Award-winning set of these quartets on Deutsche Grammophon. I still love the ESQ's performances: they're wonderfully rhythmic in the more rigid sense of the word, amazingly muscular and clear. The recording is likewise almost microscopically close -- there's no place to hide, and the ESQ has nothing to hide, the performances set a high-water mark of technical perfection. Then I picked up the Takacs Quartet's set. Whereas the ESQ readings come in the tradition of the Juilliard Quartet's groundbreaking set(s), with a very literal interpretative view, the Takacs take the more gypsy-informed approach, more in the vein of the celebrated Vegh Quartet. There is a sense of color and fantasy which I'd previously thought lacking in some of the Bartok quartets, at least in the performances I'd heard live and on CD. The Takacs bring such authority to these pieces, and such a sense of wonder and joy, too. The sound is exemplary, but not with the in-your-face closeness of the DG set. It's like listening to a live concert in a nicely (but not overly) reverberant hall. Whatever set(s) you may already own, or if you're looking for a fabulous introduction to these incredible masterpieces of the string quartet literature, buy this set now -- you will not be disappointed!

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, they get it, August 30, 2005

By 

Eironic - See all my reviews

This review is from: Béla Bartók: The 6 String Quartets - Takács Quartet (Audio CD)

Bartok has been called many things, but one thing I wish he would be called more often is a mystic of music. In my over-educated opinion, that is what he was, and that dominated him as a composer, a pianist, an ethnomusicologist and a pedagogue. The problem is that many performers come to this music very naive or, worse, dismissive of this quality of Bartok's genius, and focus too heavily on technical apsects. The result is obvious: a failure to give a proper and authentic voice to the music.

I am sympathetic to the dilemma of any performer tackling these quartets - these are very demanding on a technical level alone. But this does not mean their beauty resides purely in that facet, nor does it excuse any performer for rendering these as a technical or academic exercise. Suffice to say, some performers just don't "get it," and thus ought not attempt these works, if they are not able to met the technical challenge they present and then transcend it in spirit to articulate their fuller beauty.

As a musician who's studied Bartok academically, I am very aware on an intellectual level of how these works relate to Bartok's studies in folk music, and I can easily pick out and analyze his inversions and sequences of folk motifs that populate these works. However, all too often this is something not easily *heard* by the average listener - a tragic irony, seeing much of Bartok's work is so rooted in folk music, which is possibly the most accessible of music idioms. Sadly, this is a mystic's lot: they experience something that is univerally accessible, yet in the process of articulating that experience, those first recieving the message miss the point, get destracted by superficial details, and obscure the beauty and truth of the mystic's message for everyone else. Luckily, music can speak for itself - if the performer doesn't get in the way. So if the performer understands, either consciously or intuitively, that there is a *heart* to these works beyond what he sees written so precisely and techinically on the page (i.e. "gets it"), and strives to articulate this, then that engimatic mysicism of Bartok is unlocked and becomes readily accessible to anyone willing to peer into it.

Fortunately and thankfully, the Takacs Quartet "get it." This is very likely the finest performance of these quartets ever recorded. Without repeating too much of what other reviewers have already said, there is a very genuine spirit and superior command to the Takacs Quartet's performance that makes the very challenging and highly technical quality of these quartets transparent so to reveal, rather than obscure, Bartok's vision. They open up Bartok's quartets in a rare way that allow the listener to "live" inside them, and glaze readily upon their beauty, possibly very closely to how Bartok originally envisioned it. I listened to this recording immediately after listening the 1960's recording by the Novak Quartet, and the difference was astounding. It only vindicated my long standing opinion that Bartok was indeed a mystic of music, and that his unique and very challenging compositions offer much, much more (and for a wider audience) than one might assume from a less inspired performance.

Absolutey, unequivocally recommended.

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars earth and fire, a powerful Bartok cycle!, August 15, 2001

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Béla Bartók: The 6 String Quartets - Takács Quartet (Audio CD)

The Takacs Quartet has produced a powerful version of Bartok's string quartets, the great cycle of the early 20th century. The 3rd, 4th and 5th quartets are sheer modernist genius. The 1st and 2nd are less innovative -- the 1st is in the romantic tradition. The 6th is calm and tragic, written as Bartok prepared to leave Hungary for the USA.

Here are some comparisons of the Takacs to the Juilliard (1981) recording, which is an affordable point of comparison to this set. While the Takacs keeps each quartet intact, it does this by changing the order. The Juilliard has the advantage of presenting them in order, but No. 4 is cut. The Takacs has superb, extensive liner notes describing each quartet and how it was written, while the Juilliard has only perfunctory notes and a less attractive package overall. As for the music, these are very different interpretations. The Juilliard sounds neoclassical -- light, restrained, and emphasizing the ensemble rather than the individual lines. In dramatic contrast, the Takacs Quartet sounds rougher, earthy and fiery by turns. It's a gypsy sound, heavier, thicker, and more passionate than the Juilliard. As far as I know, these are both valid interpretations, highlighting both the rich potential of the scores, and the importance of the players. When it comes to recording quality, though, the Takacs has the clear advantage. It is superbly articulated and balanced, while the Juilliard is top-heavy, slighting the cello (this may be partly responsible for the Takacs sounding more like four individuals).

If you enjoy these quartets, listen to the great string quartet cycle of the late 20th century by Elliott Carter!