MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 67 (1876) [33:34]
String Quartet in C minor, Op. 51, No. 1 (c.1868-73) [31:30]
Takács Quartet: (Edward Dusinberre (violin I); Károly Schranz (violin II); Geraldine Walther (viola); András Fejér (cello))
rec. St. George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol, 23-26 May 2008. DDD
HYPERION CDA67552 [65:04]
Experience Classicsonline

This is a companion disc to the Takács’ recording of the String Quartet No. 2 and Piano Quintet (CDA67551) that I welcomed here almost a year ago. At the time I had recently heard their live concert performance of the Quartet No. 1, which I described as “white-hot”. The performance recorded here, if not quite as dramatic as that one, is nonetheless exciting and probably more balanced than that one, as I remember it. As well as drama in the first and last movements, the quartet brings out the lyricism in the middle movements with more mellowness than I remember from the live performance. I compared it with my old LP by the Budapest Quartet and found the Takács generally superior not only in the recorded sound but also as an interpretation. I haven’t heard the more recent and widely praised recordings by the Emerson, but doubt that they could be any better than this new one. The tempos chosen by the Takács seem ideal to me and display more variety than the Budapest’s. Take the second movement Romanze’s second subject, starting at 1:45, for example. The Takács not only pick up the tempo more than the Budapest, but also give the rhythms a welcome lift that keeps the work from sounding stodgy. I have always found this quartet the most difficult of the three Brahms works in the genre, but this new recording convinces me that the work is on the same level as the other two.
 
The Op. 67 quartet also receives a wonderful performance here. It actually precedes the Quartet No. 1 on the CD, thus is listed first above. I see no obvious reason for this except that it is the more accessible of the two. As Misha Donat points out in his superb notes to the disc, Brahms had much less difficulty producing this work than he did its predecessors over which he spent a number of years. Right from the beginning, there is an infectious spontaneity in the “hunting” theme of the first movement. Such a good theme could not go under-utilized, so Brahms brings it back in the variations of the final movement. This ties the whole work together very well and gives it a unity that the other quartets lack — not that this makes it superior to those on their own terms. The Takács do full justice to this quartet as they did to the other two. Again compared to the Budapest, their livelier tempo in the third movement Agitato, Allegretto non troppo pays dividends, and special mention should be made of Geraldine Walther’s viola solos. In the finale, the Budapest’s intonation goes awry. This is not a problem with the Takács, who play in tune throughout and characterize the finale’s variations very well.
 
In sum, those who purchased the Takács CD of the Second Quartet and the Piano Quintet need not hesitate to get this one. As usual, Hyperion’s presentation is impeccable and the recorded sound seems even richer and more present to me than the otherwise excellent earlier disc.

Leslie Wright

 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.