Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The Late String Quartets

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It has been a labor of love for me these last few days to listen to various other recordings of the Beethoven Late Quartets (including Op. 95, the 'Serioso') in comparison to this really quite remarkable set from the Takács Quartet. There are, of course, differing approaches to these protean quartets and who is to say which is correct? There are the big smooth approaches like those of the Guarneris and the beloved Quartetto Italianos, the ultra-clean and slightly clinical approaches like those of the Bergs and the Emersons (and, possibly, the Vermeers whose new set of the Bartóks is sitting there on my desk staring at me, daring me to open them), and the hell-bent-for-leather performances like those of the Cleveland and the new one by the Gewandhaus (which I strongly recommend). The Takács seem to be in a category all their own, with some features of all the above-mentioned groups, but with very much their own take on these works. Their playing is extremely subtle, but I don't use that term to mean mannered, reticent or timid. Rather, they are full-steam-ahead where it matters -- just listen to the opening chords of the Op. 127 which, as it happens, is the first track on CD 1 -- nothing backward about that; in fact, those chords are a bit raw and certainly quite powerful (just as I imagine Beethoven intended them). But in the slower parts of that very same movement there is such dynamic variation and wide variety of expression -- fitting, isn't it, for these wildly variable works? -- that one gasps at the beauty and effectiveness of it all. I give full credit to first violinist Edward Dusinberre whose tone has infinite variety, is never virtuosic in the show-offy sense, is always of a piece with the sound of his colleagues and yet is clearly the primus inter pares. Dusinberre may indeed be the most musical quartet violinist I've ever encountered -- well, that's too broad a statement, but you get some idea of what my reaction to his playing is. I'm a bear when it comes to intonation and this quartet is almost always completely in tune with each other, not something one can say about some (the recently disbanded Lindsays, say). Their tone is slightly on the dry side generally although they can put plenty of juice in their tone when necessary. In this sense they remind me a bit of the old Busch Quartet recordings, particularly in these late quartets.

The slow movements of these quartets -- which, by the way, I tend to think of as a huge mega-quartet, not a dismissable idea considering how Beethoven reused motifs and took movements and moved them around from one quartet to another as the impulse struck him -- are simply ravishing. Just listen to the slow movement, the 'Heiliger Dankgesang', of the Op. 132. It literally brought tears to my eyes. Or the Lento assai of the Op. 135.

The Op. 130 is arranged so that the 'Grosse Fuge' is in place of the replacement fourth movement, which then follows. If you prefer Beethoven's notion to put a simple movement in fourth position, you can simply program out the 'Grosse Fuge.' Personally, I prefer the 'Grosse Fuge' to be included as the finale of the Op. 130, so it tickled me to have it arranged this way. And what a performance of the 'Grosse Fuge' this is! It is played with ferocity and real edge -- some folks might balk at that, I suppose -- that conveys the almost superhuman struggle this movement requires. Surely that's what Beethoven intended, don't you think? Yet there are lyrically tender moments, too, in the meno mosso e moderato sections.

I probably would have to be forced at gunpoint to give up any of my CDs of various quartets' performances of the late quartets, but at this moment, at least, I think I'd hold the Takács closest to my breast and relinquish it last.

Strongest recommendation.

3 CDs TT=220mins

Scott Morrison

First, my short review....in a word: EUREKA!!

For those who have not ever purchased a complete set of the Beethoven Quartets, I hesitate to tell those auditors to purchase this Sine Qua Non set by the Takacs Quartet, for they may feel no

need to purchase any other set, so marvelous and fine a set these are, but if one should own only one set of Beethoven Quartets, then one can hardly regret one's chose if this be it....this particular set of the Late Quartets completes the Takacs cycle and my copy arrived last night...I began with Der Grosse Fuge and shivered in ecstasy for the length of the performance....I let the cd continue into the

Replacement movement for Der Grosse Fuge in Opus 130, then staggering under the weight of my central nervous system's attempt to digest the experience of these segments of the precious Beethovenian Sound/Time Continuum, I pulled out and played the first & last movements of the Quartet #14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131, which is my favorite Beethoven Quartet, which soared to the empyreal realm that some quartets can only dream of...EUREKA!!!...

...so the Takacs cycle reduces the Emersons to mere toast....the Takacs can only be equalled but never surpassed in pace, rhythm, phrasing, timbre, accents, dynamics, ensemble and subtlety of expression...

...I humbly place the aesthetic achievement of the Takacs Beethoven cycle along side that of the past achievements of the Vegh Quartet, the Italian Quartet, the Lindsay Quartet, the Budapest Quartet, the Hungarian Quartet and the Busch Quartet... and the recorded sound by Decca exceeded my expectations...

...Warning!...if one is personally attached to the achievements of the Guarneri Quartet, the Juilliard Quartet, or the Emerson Quartet, then do not purchase the Takacs Cycle for either your past reveries will be shattered and rendered to dust by, in my opinion, of course, the superior performances of the Takacs or the subtle, sublime music making of the Takacs will simply float past your ears as if one were as tone deaf as General Ulysses S. Grant, who once said: "I only know two tunes. One of them is Yankee Doodle and the other isn't."...

Alberich

Yeah...well, I've been unfaithful...The Busch has been my main set for 25 years. But I saw 2 concerts of the Takacs' series this year and I knew I had to have this. And it's wonderful...The Gravitas of the Busch will never be equalled. But Levitas? There the Takacs has it all over Adolph and his gang. Listen to the last movement of Op. 127. This is Beethoven for our time. This is Beethoven that has heard Duke Ellington, The Beatles,James Brown,Ligeti,The Tarafs de Haidouck,etc. But there's no distortion, only a gestural mirror. Playful, joyful, funky...I must admit that I will always return to the Busch Op. 131. I don't feel that the Takacs really sustained the aura of my very favorite quartet. Well, but every home should have a few Beethoven Late Quartet sets. And this is one of the essential ones. Oh, one more thing: Edward Dusinberre manages the (nearly) impossible - to be a 1st violinist with both a conventionally beautiful sound AND the ability to drive the quartet towards incisive, brilliant chamber performances. If you think of Adolph Busch, Sandor Vegh, Robert Mann, Rudolph Kolisch, you realise that a certain unsentimental roughness has often been considered de rigueur in order to avoid soupiness and kitsch...but somehow these guys pull it off...

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.

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.

Listening to the Cavatina Op 130 is like an out of body experience. Unfortunately, while I was in a Cavatina induced trance, the phone rang and some tele marketeer offered me satellite service with free installation (!!!^&^%# #$$#@!$ % @$!!!). So I ripped the phone out of the wall ! Ok, not really, but next time I am taking full precautions.

This is the best of all versions of the quartets I have heard so far. I was going to get the Emerson but changed my mind after hearing that the music was played too fast.

The recording quality however is inconsistent. Decca normally sets the benchmark for orchestral recordings, but some of the sections even in the same quartet sounded muffled. I don't know why the recording engineers had to screw with it and I was tempted to give it 4 stars because of that. But didn't, thinking it wouldn't do justice to the Takacs. Decca, please reengineer and re-release this. You owe it to the Takacs.

update: Oh please , please re release them on SACD, Takacs. I beg you with folded arms and knees. CD does not do full justice to the music.

I have come to enjoy and appreciate string quartets much more in recent years, and my collection of recordings embraces Mendelssohn, Schubert, Haydn, Shostakovich, Borodin and Britten; but not Beethoven. I had some old LP recordings of the quartets several years ago (long disappeared) and I felt it was time to hear them again. So I was approaching this set of quartets as something new.

I bought these recordings having read several reviews of the Takacs Quartet's recordings of the Beethoven Quartets; indeed they have been so glowing that I could not help but be curious. These are not easy works to understand and I have heard the music a few times and feel that I am just beginning to learn about them. I would have to say that my favorites are the Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 "Quartetto Serioso" the Quartet in B flat, op. 130, the Grosse Fuge, op. 133 and the Quartet in F major, Op. 135. These works had an immediate appeal and the playing of the Takacs is luminous. The Quartet in E flat, Op. 127, Quartet in C sharp minor, Op. 131 and Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 have extended slow movements that are intimate and somber, and can become somewhat tiresome. When I was playing disc one with the Op. 127 and Op. 131 quartets my wife said it was the most boring music she had heard. Well, this is music that requires multiple hearings to understand and I do not plan to get rid of this set.

As has been pointed out by several reviewers, the late Beethoven quartets are not works for light listening. However, even the most challenging of the quartets contains music that I found appealing. For example, the Scherzo and Allegro from the Op. 127 quartet are brilliant and even the C sharp minor quartet with its beginning dark and somber adagio eventually brightens as the music unfolds. I usually listen to CDs with a headset and I found that the sound and balance of these recordings are second to none. The playing of the Takacs is fabulous and I highly recommend this set, even if some of the music may require some patience.

"The third and final volume in this definitive modern cycle which has already received enormous international acclaim as well as a Grammy Award and two Gramophone Awards."

"Takács Quartet: Edward Dusinberre - violin, Károly Schranz - violin, Roger Tapping - viola, András Fejér - cello"

"It is impossible to exaggerate the beauty of the tone-colours that these four musicians achieve... If late Beethoven is the Holy Grail of quartet playing, then the Takács Quartet has found it"

- The Guardian concert review

"The playing is of the highest standard: exuberant, yet also alive to the softest, tenderest gradations of tone;"

- International Record Review

(obviously not my reviews - I am not enough of an expert or even acquainted enough with classical to do a good review. I bought it and I am impressed, though.

This is some of the best music ever written. Unfortunately, Disc one and two are correct, but disc three (labeled as such) is actually disc one. I returned it and received another with the same problem.

I just heard the great Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra perform an orchestral version of Grosse Fuge, and I was looking forward to hearing Takacs' version. I can't because I don't have the "Real" disc three.

As far as the performances, I say they are incredible and energetic. Hopefully I'll be able to get the third disc this time.

I can't top Mr J Scott Morrison's review. This is among the handful of greatest recordings of the late quartets.

Mr Daniel Adams should have checked the documentation on this recording before criticizing the use of E in place of G in bar 246. This is a correction made in the Henle edition that was released after this recording, but which the editors kindly shared with the Takacs Quartet.