Takacs Quartet’s must-have Beethoven albums released in attractive box set

DECCA has released the must-have Takacs Quartet’s complete set of the Beethoven string quartets in one attractive box package with bonuses.

The Takacs Quartet (from left) Roger Tapping, Andras Fejer, Edward Dusinberre and Karoly Schranz in 2001.

• Blind pianist Nobu raises the roof
• ACO shows off its party tricks
• Downsized to delight
• Bach with some hints of Spain

DECCA has released the Takacs Quartet’s complete set of the Beethoven string quartets in one attractive box package along with a bonus DVD and a Blue-ray disc.

Given that these 16 magnificent and all-encompassing works, 17 if you include the stand-alone Grosse Fuge, have always been my desert island choice, the music I must have if Spotify was unavailable, then this set would be the one I’d grab.

Released progressively between 2002 and 2004, they feature the group’s previous Anglo-Hungarian line-up — Edward Dusinberre and Karoly Schranz, violins, Roger Tapping, viola, and cellist Andras Fejer — in wonderful form, beautifully recorded and produced by the Decca team.

Tapping left the quartet to join the Juilliards in 2005, replaced by American violist Geraldine Walther. The group has lost nothing in the changeover, as you will be able to judge for yourself when they tour here with Musica Viva in August.

The box set includes a sumptuous booklet featuring excerpts from Dusinberre’s Beethoven For A Later Age — The Story of a String Quartet, which gives some fascinating insights into how the Takacs approaches the works.

Decca's complete Beethoven String Quartets set by the Takacs Quartet comes with sumptuous extras.

The DVD is also an entertaining bonus in which the musicians talk about and perform three great quartets — Haydn’s Bird, Beethoven’s Razumovsky No. 1 and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden.

But the set is to be treasured for the wonderful, intelligent and sensitive readings of the complete Beethoven canon — from the six Op 18 set where the Takacs pinpoints how the young composer was managing far more than just paying tribute to his predecessors Haydn and Mozart; through the middle quartets where Beethoven took the genre to a whole other level, and on to the awe-inspiring late works which still intrigue and amaze audiences to this day.

The set is available from Fish Fine Music for $64.99.