Recording Review #11: Almost Awesome

Schubert: String Quartet No. 8 in B-Flat, D. 112; String Quartet No. 15 in G, D. 887. Takács Quartet. Hyperion CDA68423. 

The Takács Quartet has gone through plenty of personnel since its founding in 1975. I believe the only remaining original member is cellist András Fejér. I saw the group perform on two occasions in the early 2000s, when they had different people at the second violin and viola positions. Both experiences were marvelous. The current squad sound mostly terrific together on this recording. I just wish that some of their interpretive decisions in the great G Major Quartet were different.

Schubert's string quartets are an uneven group. If they had ended with the Eleventh in E Major (D. 353), completed in 1816, he would now be considered a solid but unremarkable contributor to the genre. But with the single-movement Twelfth Quartet (called the Quartettsatz) appearing some four years later, we move steeply from respectable to outstanding on the inspiration scale. And we very much stay there for the following three in the cycle. 

The Eighth Quartet, then, is still in pre-world-beating territory. It does show progress from Schubert's earliest attempts and is an accomplished work. We even encounter some of the harmonic boldness that characterizes the late quartets. (The move to G Minor territory in the first movement's exposition, which is full of sudden passion, is a good example.) But by and large this piece is still stylistically within orbit of more imposing models by Haydn and Beethoven. I have no issue with the Takács Quartet's account here. Everything comes off extremely tastefully. 

But D. 887 is a transcendent work – one of Schubert's very best and, as far as I'm concerned, one of the greatest string quartets in the entire literature. Moreover, it is finicky and difficult to hold together, with many opportunities for various miscues and eccentricities. In other words, there is much to potentially separate even excellent performances from each other, never mind ones that are merely good or less. To my ears, the Takács Quartet delivers both splendid inner movements and inner parts of the first movement, adroitly dispatching the challenges of layered voicings, thematic dovetails, etc. However, we need to hear those early tremolos just a tad more. I understand the impulse to keep them super hushed, but they shouldn't be so at the expense of audibility. This is some of the most wondrously sad music ever written, and we need to hear everything as clearly as possible. A decidedly sharper disappointment arrived when I listened to the finale. I appreciate how difficult this music is to perform well, but the playing here sounds rushed and even clipped occasionally. Some of the separate string lines don't quite come off sharply, and harmonies/thematic arrivals that need to be savored (if only briefly) fly by in too much of a blur. My preference here is actually for a BIT slower approach (if you can believe it). Otherwise too much in this thickly-packed neck of the woods tends to get missed. I suggest the Melos Quartet (DG 463 151-2) or The New Zealand Quartet (Trust Records MMT 2062) as ideal alternatives. 

Preferential drawbacks aside, this is a fine disc overall. It's definitely worth a listen. Maybe your tastes will align more closely how the Takács Quartet plays parts of D. 887. But everything else I can cheer on without reservation. 

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