Beethoven: Middle Quartets

Performer:	Takacs Quartet	Click Image To See Full Size Pic
CD Title:	Beethoven: Middle Quartets
Composer:	Ludwig van Beethoven
CD INFO:	Decca 289 470 847-2 (2 CDs)
Reviewer:	Ward Botsford
Notes:	Beethoven: "Razumovsky" String Quartets, Op. 59 No. 7 in F major, No. 8 in E minor, No. 9 in C major String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, Op. 74, "Harp"

Listen to A Soundtrack From This CD Excerpt used: Quartet No. 9, Mov. 4

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Review:

I was brought up on the Beethoven played by the Budapest Quartet. Way back when they had not even recorded the whole 16. But the group was at Town Hall every year and Beethoven was usually on the agenda.

They were what you might call 'Present/Imperfect'. That is to say the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. We all remember the rasp of the first violin - almost a constant in later years - the sloppy finger work in the cello department etc. etc. But you kept listening to the Budapest because - by God! - Their hearts were in the right place.

In later years they got so bad that I flew in haste to the Hungarian Quartet and then had a romance with the Frenchmen - the Pascal, Lowenguth and so forth.

Not too many years ago I gave an ecstatic review - which I do not for a minute regret - to the Fine Arts Quartet whose ideas are still available on CD I'm happy to say. But, alas they are no more. More recently the Emerson Quartet has ruled the roost and naturally I attended concerts and bought CDs. They are a splendid, smooth and steady state group, which I like but who do not really move me. Probably my fault, I'm sure.

Now here comes the Takacs Quartet and I will have to rethink my Beethoven quartet playing once again. These gentlemen have what the Budapest had at its best - and yes: Worst - they have a unity not just to themselves but also to the craggy, nasty 'To Hell With Everyone: I'm Beethoven!' that this music requires.

It is the best Beethoven playing I have heard in many years and I look forward the Op. 18, the final quartets and Op. 95, which Decca promises.

Why does it seem to me to be so good? Well, the Takacs hail from Budapest and have a Middle-European attitude toward what they're playing. It shows up in the broad statements in the F major and E minor Russian themes especially in the E minor where Beethoven takes the theme and flings it away almost with disgust for having used it at all. That is Beethoven at his greatest and that is quartet playing at its best. And the Takacs have a few things that the Budapest never had such as a violin with a perfect tone for quartet playing and the cellist has an attack that is right there with just the precise perfection of attack. Nor do the middle two players seem lacking in any way.

Now, it is a long time from the F major to the C# minor - the ultimate quartet if not in number but in intricacy of music and I am looking forward to it.

It goes without saying that the recording is excellent - indeed it would be a surprise if it were not.

There are several rather odd things about the notes that accompany the album. Not that Misha Donat's notes are bad by any means but they are curiously wanting. There is absolutely no mention nor analysis of the Op. 74 quartet at all. In the biography of the Takacs there are words about including Op. 95 with the forthcoming set of late quartets but not a word about Op. 74, which is very odd indeed.

Then there is a 'Thank You' page at the very end of something over 35 names of people who sponsored this set.

Well, if this is the only way we can get first class recordings such as this: So be it.