Reviews
For the July 2023 release of
Samuel Taylor-Coleridge Fantasiestücke
and DVORAK Op. 106
September 2023
“The Takács are impressive on this album: every micro-phrase, every note is considered. Their sound draws you in from the first moment. The opening chords and sinuous lines vibrate and thrill on many levels; this is of course to do with their rich and subtle playing but also the fantastic recorded balance.”
Amy Blier-Carruthers | Gramophone Magazine
Read more
August 2023
“This album finds the quartet in excellent shape, with their clarity of idea and warmth of sound as strong as ever.”
Kate Wakeling | BBC Music Magazine
Read more
May 20, 2023
“Classical music doesn’t get much more life-enhancing than this.”
Flora Wilson | The Guardian
Read more
May 18, 2023
“Rich contrasts: a Wigmore Hall evening of dazzling versatility by the Takács Quartet.”
Christopher Sallon | Seen and Heard International
Read more
May 11, 2023
“Even with personnel changes, the Takács Quartet remains one of the greatest chamber string ensembles we have on the world stage.”
Blas Matamoro | Scherzo magazine, Madrid
Read more
For the January 2023 release of quartets by Hough, Dutilleux and Ravel:
August 2, 2023
“This is a magical album.”
Geoff Brown | London Times
Read more
January 24, 2023
“★★★★★”
“This recording is really a joy from start to finish.”
Roger Nichols | BBC Music Magazine
Read more
February 2023
“These are both powerful, brilliantly imagined interpretations, painted in bold, rich colors and shaped with flashing virtuosity.”
Richard Bratby | Gramophone Magazine
Read more
January 5, 2023
“In the Takács’ hands Ainsi la Nuit skips weightlessly from gauzy otherworldliness to coiled-spring punchiness to gossamer delicacy. The precision and rhythmic tautness that allow these quicksilver changes also inform every note of their playing of the Ravel…”
Erica Jeal | The Guardian Recording of the Week
Read more
January 6, 2023
“It [the Hough] is a lovely work, full of wit and panache, that could hardly have more committed, persuasive advocates…as a vehicle for showing off every facet of the Takács players’ technique it [the Dutilleux] couldn’t be more ideal. Every nuance and technical demand is tossed off with aplomb and seeming ease, and yet none of it ever comes across as virtuosity for its own sake; they illuminate and elucidate the musical sense and meaning behind every moment.”
James Longstaffe | Presto Music Recording of the Week
Read more
For the September 2022 release of Haydn’s opp. 42, 77 and 103:
September 9, 2022
“★★★★★”
“One thing is certain about this new recording by the Takács Quartet: you will not hear better string quartet playing anywhere in the world today.”
Misha Donat | BBC Music Magazine
Read more
October 2022
“Being steeped in this music, the Takács respond to it with their customary naturalness and confidence.”
David Threasher | Gramophone Magazine
Read more
September 2022
“★★★★★”
“Impeccable…performances as wonderful and sonorous as you could hope for.”
Dan Cairns | The Sunday Times
Read more
October 2022
“★★★★★”
“Even in the most exuberant passages, in the most intricate webs of superimposed rhythms, the Takács beguile the ear with their incisive phrasing, their consistency, and their sense of detail. Compared with their previous recording (Decca, 1991), this new one seems more dynamic, more intense in its highlighting of the contrapuntal dimension…”
The Diapason Magazine
October 7, 2022
“A year ago we hailed the first album on Hyperion of the ‘altered’ make-up of the Takács Quartet…The album they recorded in 2020, devoted to works by the Mendelssohns – brother and sister – (see our review of 21 October 2021) richly deserved its ‘Joker absolu’ award. What dazzled was the homogeneity of the new team, equally as much as its expressive qualities and the balance between the desks, revealing itself in a sense of freshness, delivering a clear message with well contoured rhythms. We eagerly awaited their second album, announced as being dedicated to Haydn. Here it is, and the result is everything we had wished for…They profile the melodies with a knowing ease that culminates in the third movement and its fugue, with the first violin making light of its extreme heights, filling every moment with creative tension. Op. 77 No 2, dominated by its contrapuntal aspect, is given harmonic warmth and expressive density, and in its superb Andante – a true masterpiece – they achieve a dramatic capacity that is truly breathtaking.”
Jean Lacroix | Crescendo Magazine
Read more
Edinburgh FestivAL
August 15, 2022
“A full hall for a very accomplished quartet.”
Hugh Kerr | Edinburgh Music Review
Read more
August 15, 2022
“They are a class act, if ever there was one, marrying aristocratic elegance and red-blooded energy to everything they play.”
Simon Thompson | Seen and Heard International
Read more
June 7, 2020
“And now one of the world’s greatest string quartets, the Takacs, has taken up the work of Amy Beach (1867-1944). Garrick Ohlsson joins the quartet for Beach’s Piano Quintet in F sharp minor on a sublime recent release on the Hyperion label, easily the most prestigious recording of her music to date.”
David Allen | The New York Times
Read more
November 6, 2019
“★★★★★”
“What endures about the Takács Quartet, year after year, is how equally the four players carry the music.
Erica Jeal | The Guardian
Read more
Takács Quartet & Jeremy Denk, Mostly Mozart Festival, Lincoln Center
August 5, 2019
“Excellent performances”
David M. Rice | Classical Source
Read more
Cleveland Chamber Music Society
April 11, 2019
“Takács Quartet shows its strengths...”
Sam Jacobson | Bachtrack
Read more
Takács Quartet and Marc André Hamelin,
Edinburgh Festival
August 11, 2018
“Chamber music royalty...”
Simon Thompson | Bachtrack
Read more