Brahms: String Quartet / Piano Quintet
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: String Quartet / Piano Quintet
Takacs Quartet with Stephen Hough (piano)
[ Hyperion / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 30 November 2007
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Takács Quartet's first CD with Hyperion was heralded as a uniquely successful collaboration: 'the best string quartet in the world' working under ideal recording conditions, creating a release that is 'a model for what chamber music should be' (The Guardian). They now turn to Brahms's celebrated Op 51 No 2, a work which the composer held back for years despite frequent requests for it until it had reached his requisite standard of perfection. Brahms's struggle with the string quartet medium eventually led him to find an intensely personal language for it, with an unmistakable originality of melody and texture.
Tákacs Quartet's recent performance of Brahms's Piano Quintet in F minor with Stephen Hough elicited the following review: 'Hough and the Takács are about to record this, and the result will be something to listen out for: chamber music does not get much better' (The Guardian). Acclaimed for his concerto and solo playing, Hough is proved here also to be a truly great chamber musician; this recording is the product of a deep musical relationship. The Piano Quintet in F minor is a highly charged work of dark passion, often deeply sombre, yet always suffused with drama, requiring (and receiving here) the highest standards of musicianship
'The Takács Quartet bring a huge sense of enjoyment to both the Piano Quintet and the String Quartet Op 51 No 2, and it's clear that this chamber music is being revelled in by its players as much as its listeners. Stephen Hough's playing - shiny-toned, conversational, intelligent, well-balanced - is a special delight' (Classic FM Magazine)
"This is the finest recording of Brahms's Piano Quintet since the electrifying Eschenbach/Amadeus version … Stephen Hough and the Takács Quartet push the music about as far as it can go … one senses from the start that [Hough] is really fired up and the Takács follow him every inch of the way with playing of beguiling tonal sophistication and thrilling intensity … this is an exceptional account of a truly exceptional masterwork … the Takács gently caress and cosset this extraordinary music with a glowing sensitivity and insight … highly recommended, especially to those who normally find Brahms a composer they admire rather than fall in love with" International Record Review
"These new versions from Stephen Hough and the Takács Quartet strike me as even better, and in more modern sound … in both Quintet and Quartet the performers give bright, focused, alert, almost 'classical' readings, very different from the ponderous brown studies that marked Brahms performances of yesteryear … this is an altogether recommendable release" BBC Music Magazine
"a model for what chamber music should be" The Guardian
"In the Brahms Second Quartet the Takács fins a most appealing lightness of touch. … the Piano Quintet… has fire and passion aplenty… There's a feeling of coming together of ideas, with these artists… sparking off one another in a very unstudio-ish way." Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008
"In both Quintet and Quartet the performers give bright, focused, alert, almost 'classical' readings…" BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 ****
"In the Brahms Second Quartet the Takács find a most appealing lightness of touch. They reveal anew the extraordinarily imaginative way in which the work begins, and breathe air into the intricate textures which precede the vacillating second theme. There's an absolute unanimity to their playing, but a fetching liveliness too. Compared to such groups as the Alban Berg, who revel in the lushness of Brahms's writing, the Takács are more febrile and transparent. Their third movement creeps in, skittering, but there's no lack of sweetness of tone when required. And the fugal section has a spring in its step. Brahms isn't all seriousness, they remind us.
The other major selling-point of this disc is the Piano Quintet, for which the Takács are joined by Stephen Hough. There's nothing cosy about this latest reading, which has fire and passion aplenty, and the recording places Hough pleasingly within the overall texture rather than unduly spotlighting him. There's a feeling of coming together of ideas, with these artists - masters of colour all of them - sparking off one another in a very unstudio-ish way. And throughout, Hough's virtuosity makes light of Brahms's unforgiving textures." Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
Tracks:
Piano Quintet in F minor Op 34 [40'10]
String Quartet in A minor Op 51 No 2 [33'11]
