The Takács have recorded the G major quartet, the last and most ambitious of Schubert’s string quartets, before, on a disc released by Decca in 1997. Both the first violin Edward Dusinberre and the cellist András Fejér on that disc are still members of the group today, and play on the new version, which was recorded in the UK a year ago, but in some respects the two performances feel strikingly different.
Where the earlier reading seemed to be driven by nervous energy, every rhythm taut, every accent sharply etched, the new one seems much more relaxed, and distinctly less intense. The tempos for the first and last movements in particular feel markedly slower this time around, and the great first movement, one of Schubert’s most sublime tragic statements despite its major key, takes almost two minutes longer than before. Of course, it almost goes without saying that technically the performance is as precise as ever, and the account of the rather Haydnesque B flat quartet D112 that’s also on the disc is a model of good manners, but the G major quartet just doesn’t quite compel attention in the way the Takács’s playing so regularly has in the past.
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