COMPOSERS: Beethoven
LABELS: Decca
ALBUM TITLE: Beethoven String Quartets
WORKS: String Quartets Op. 95, 127, 130, 131, 132, 135; Grosse Fugue Op. 133
PERFORMER: Takacs Quartet
CATALOGUE NO: 470 849-2
one approaches any new
recording of Beethoven’s late
quartets with such high expectations
that it feels like a minor miracle
if a performance lives up to them
even half the time. There were
a few moments during Op. 127
where I wondered if the Tak‡cs
couldn’t have made a little more
of this phrase or that detail. But
what matters most is the overall
impression, and I’ve rarely heard a
version of this Quartet where there
was such a magisterial inevitability
about the ending; after that you’d
have to be really mean-spirited to
carp about minutiae. Then comes
Op. 131, and right from the first
phrase – full of contained feeling,
the climactic accent beautifully
judged – you know this is going to
be a great performance. If the Takács
makes less of the first movement
climax than some ensembles, that’s
only because it so clearly sees this as
the first stage in a long journey – a
process that isn’t complete until the
brusque final chords.
Time after time the Takács seems
to get things just right: rhythms taut
and muscular but also capable of
expressive freedom; tempos spacious
enough in the slow movements of
Opp. 132 and 135 without being
too reverentially slow (though
watch out for a tiny harmonic
surprise near the end of the latter
– a new reading?). And each work
is clearly conceived whole, even the
enigmatic Op. 95 – chronologically
not a ‘late’ quartet, but so close in spirit that its inclusion here also
feels just right. Excellent recordings,
too: sonorous, and with well-judged
sense of four-voices-in-one. It
doesn’t feel at all risky to say that this is probably the finest modern set
of these great quartets. Stephen Johnson
Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 95, 127, 130, 131, 132, 135; Grosse Fugue Op. 133
one approaches any new
recording of Beethoven’s late
quartets with such high expectations
that it feels like a minor miracle
if a performance lives up to them
even half the time. There were
a few moments during Op. 127
where I wondered if the Tak‡cs
couldn’t have made a little more
of this phrase or that detail. But
what matters most is the overall
impression, and I’ve rarely heard a
version of this Quartet where there
was such a magisterial inevitability
about the ending; after that you’d
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:54 pm