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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
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Disc 1:
Disc 2:
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And to think... I was sold to it by the cover!,
By reallylongpasta@aol.com (Essex, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bartók: The String Quartets (2 CDs) (Audio CD)
I purchased this CD about a year ago during a period of BARTOK exploration. To say that i loved the CD after listening to it for the first time would be an understatement; i was absolutely blown away!!! I have never before or since felt so completely and utterly pleased with any of my musical purchases. On every level the music is the most finely crafted musical WORK OF ART i have ever laid my ears upon. As compositions they truely are incredible. To those of you who normallly shy away from non-tonal music (which of course there will be very few, having clicked on Bartok in the first place) LISTEN TO THIS!!! You will be converted! These peices are a composer gripped with incredible passion. There is not a contrived, cold or dull moment in the entire 2 and a half hours of listening to these discs. His attention to the most small of details, subtle qualities and potential of all four instruments is unsurpassed. The performance is equally as incredible. These four instrumentalists play technically and emotionally in ways and to extremes that i never thought possible (credit as much to the composer as to the performers.) They play with vigour, speed, delicacy and charged emotion. Their minds are tuned into one another in a way that i have never heard or felt before; they become ONE incredible voice. They obviously know the music backwards (probably born with it, and together.) My extensive knowledge on other performances of these works i can sum up simply by telling you that i have spent many hours under shop headphones in pursuit of the BEST (if it were at all possible to better it.) But from whatever way i looked at them i couldn't beat this one. And to think... that i was sold to it by the cover! As far as the recording goes that too is perfect. Crisp, warm and perfectly balanced on any speaker... and i have personally put it through a vigourous testing schedule; anyone who is even remotely conected to me and has a cd and speaker system of any shape, size or quality has undergone the entire "BARTOK 6 STRING QUARTETS EXPERIENCE." To say that everyone was one over by my intense BARTOK grinding sessions would be a lie, but one thing is for sure... they have never heard anything in quite the same way since.
12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Overrated,
By
This review is from: Bartók: The String Quartets (2 CDs) (Audio CD)
This recent recording by the Takacs Quartet is very impressive technically but for me fails to get to the heart of these elusive quartets.
The performances themselves are beyond criticism in the apparent ease with which they negotiate this famously thorny music. However that's where the doubts start to creep in because the Takacs sound too studied and play in a big-boned way that robs the music of much of it's intimacy. The performers are also recorded at too much distance and with too much reverberation for my taste. A recent Gramophone reviewer called it 'swimmy' and I think that aptly sums up the quality of loosing detail that you have in this set. As the perfect companions in this music I would choose the Vegh Quartet (on Naive - Bartok - String Quartets Complete) or possibly the Hungarian Quartet (DG - Bartók: 6 String Quartets). Both are justly famous and really have this music in their blood. The recordings are both first rate too and close enough to hear the grit in their playing. They are both also available at at least half the price of this set.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
energy and warmth,
By tony (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bartók: The String Quartets (2 CDs) (Audio CD)
If you are unused to listening to music of this sort this CD is a wonderful way to enter deeper into a beautiful musical world. The playing seems to me faultless and its intensity staggering. The contrasts between the energetic and sometimes strident sections and the delicately ethereal backdrops are marvellously reproduced and at times it's fascinating to hear the distinctive Hungarian folk harmonies portrayed with such naturalness by these immensely talented musicians. You might gather I recommend it!
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