Canter Bridge

It is difficult for this amateur music appreciator to imagine a more intimate art music experience than to see and hear (or, if necessary, simply to hear) chamber music played by a quartet as passionate and expert as the Takacs. I first encountered this ensemble in Indianapolis in a concert hall that by its very physical parameters requires an intimate experience.

Beethoven was not on the program that evening, but the Takacs turned this listener’s experience into an almost strenous physicality. One hears, of course. But one also sees and participates in the performative experience that occurs each time this quartet takes their chairs and has one more go at an enduring piece of the repertoire.

Beethoven seems almost to have written for them. Or they to have been created to play Beethoven. There is an almost preternatural clarity to each entrance. Indeed, the quartet plays as one body.

One senses almost that he is being trained by the performances rather than assessing this or that constituent element of them.

The Takacs are committed to the full cycle of Beethoven’s work for string quartets. This 2002 Decca production is the down payment. It makes a very splendid place to start.