Utwory na płycie:

• Schubert: String Quartet #14 in D minor, D 810, 'Death and the Maiden' - 1. Allegro
• Schubert: String Quartet #14 in D minor, D 810, 'Death and the Maiden' - 2. Andante con moto
• Schubert: String Quartet #14 in D minor, D 810, 'Death and the Maiden' - 3. Scherzo
• Schubert: String Quartet #14 in D minor, D 810, 'Death and the Maiden' - 4. Presto
• Schubert: String Quartet #13 in A minor, D 804 - 'Rosamunde' - 1. Allegro ma non troppo
• Schubert: String Quartet #13 in A minor, D 804 - 'Rosamunde' - 2. Andante
• Schubert: String Quartet #13 in A minor, D 804 - 'Rosamunde' - 3. Menuetto
• Schubert: String Quartet #13 in A minor, D 804 - 'Rosamunde' - 4. Allegro moderato

String Quartet No 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' D810
String Quartet No 13 in A minor 'Rosamunde' D804

Hyperion’s Record of the Month for October marks the debut on the label by the Takács Quartet. After seventeen years recording for Decca, including multi-awarding-winning cycles of quartets by Beethoven and Bartók, this thrilling ensemble is now embarking on a new relationship with Hyperion; future projects will include works by Brahms, Janácek and Schumann. Schubert’s famous String Quartet, D810, subtitled ‘Death and the Maiden’, is one of the pillars of the repertoire. This new performance is electrifying, and was recorded following a global concert series, enthusiastically welcomed in the press: ‘The Takács’ reading of the second movement was characterized by unremitting pain and mystery. While three of the musicians intoned the insistent theme of Death in pursuit of the Maiden, Edward Dusinberre’s violin expressed poignantly the Maiden’s tender fragility and rising panic. The final movement, in the form of a somewhat crazed tarantella, was taken at breakneck speed, as if the four musicians were driving wild horses though they never lost control of the reins. Risk-taking, a Takács trademark, certainly didn’t fail here.’ We have every confidence that this recording, and the Hyperion/Takács collaboration in general, will prove to be one of the brightest jewels in the Hyperion catalogue.

GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE ; THE INDEPENDENT ALBUM OF THE WEEK; GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE; CD REVIEW RECORDING OF THE WEEK

'It is a considerable coup for Hyperion to sign up the Takács Quartet. They are currently the greatest string quartet in the world...The first product of the group's new partnership is outstanding...The recording quality is ideal - natural, never aggressive. This disc is a model for what chamber music should be' (The Guardian)

'The Takács have the ability to make you believe that there's no other possible way the music should go, and the strength to overturn preconceptions that comes only with the greatest performers' (Gramophone)

'The sharpness and subtlety of this Death and the Maiden takes it to the top of available versions. With this superb disc the collaboration couldn't have got off to a better start' (The Times)

'The quartets...receive performances that do radiant justice to their genius. That of the D minor is prodigious. I have never heard the panic-stricken finale - music whose audacities still take the breath away - played more ferociously. The Takács also find memorably hushed sounds for the twilight world that much of both works inhabits' (Sunday Times)

'This superb CD is [The Takács Quartet's] first for Hyperion: immaculate playing and sublime beauty' (The Independent)

'This is intense music-making of very high quality indeed' (International Record Review)

'Death and the Maiden is a deeply affecting reading with the violin of Edward Dusinberre tenderly conveying the maiden's vulnerability and the mounting panic as she is stalked by the insistent death march of the other three instruments. The musicians capture Schubert's distinctive blend of beauty and angst' (The Observer)

'Schubert's two most accessible quartets receive interpretations on this disc which are as near ideal as one is ever likely to hear' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Edgy, inspired playing, with enough broody lyricism to set the atmosphere of the A minor's opening in a few notes, and to balance its outwardly more cheerful finale with a disingenous wistfulness that tells us we're hearing the tip of Schubert's emotional iceberg. Death and the Maiden is given a high-octane treatment that exposes Schubert's raw nerve-endings with strong tempi and a near-violent intensity of tone' (Classic FM Magazine)

'This is superb quartet-playing, the quality of which becomes even more formidable over several listens...The latest stage of the Takács Quartet's career has got off to a very impressive start' (www.classicalsource.com)

'Certes nous n'avions "besoin" d'une nouvelle interprétation des Quatuors La Jeune fille et la mort et Rosamunde, mais ce CD est imparable... Les Takács ont plus que bein réussi leur entrée au catalogue Hyperion. Si leur version de La Jeune fille et la mort fait jeu égal avec les meilleurs, celle de Rosamunde se dégage vraiment comme un tres grand moment de la discographie schubertienne' (ClassicsTodayFrance.com)

'Hyperion already has cornered the market with its roster of top pianists, and with this release the label looks about ready to do so with string quartets as well. On evidence here, the new partnership is operating in top form ..."Death and the Maiden" is frighteningly intense in its outer movements, with driving rhythms and a real feeling of danger, of music making "on the edge" in the concluding tarantella ... Hyperion's sonics do them proud. Music lovers have much to enjoy, and much to look forward to in this and future releases' (ClassicsToday.com)

'The ensemble, even with a new viola player, is impeccable - this is still a quartet that sounds as though it breathes and thinks as one – and some of leader Edward Dusinberre’s playing is intensely beautiful. The recording is superb: up close and personal, so all the detail’s there, yet there’s enough ambient detail to stop it from becoming too invasive. It’s the first recording the Takacs has made for its new label Hyperion, and they must be thrilled with it.' (CD Review)

'Now, with veteran San Francisco Symphony principal violist Geraldine Walther replacing their former violist, their new recording that pairs Schubert's Death and the Maiden and Rosamunde string quartets (Hyperion) retains if not magnifies the same impact. The essential interplay and cooperation between viola and cello that make the slow movement of Death and the Maiden sing with such devastating eloquence are reinforced by the heart-breaking sweetness and forceful cries of first violinist Edward Dusinberre. These are great musicians, with veteran second violinist Karoly Schranz and cellist Andras Fejer equally eloquent. The performance is riveting, as shattering as it is ultimately uplifting. If the Rosamunde quartet represents a gentler excursion into melancholy, it is no less filled with beauty. Here again, the extraordinary oneness between the members of the quartet enriches musicianship as thought through as it is alive to every moment. What keeps the playing fresh is the tension and the constant interplay of pitch, rhythm, and nuance that declare Schubert's emotions as real and relevant today as they were close to two centuries ago' (Bay Area Reporter, USA)

---

dostępna w serii Hyperion 30; May 2006; St George's, Brandon Hill, United Kingdom; Produced by Chris Hazell; Engineered by Simon Eadon; Release date: October 2006;