Takacs Quartet - Dvorak: String Quartet Op 106; Coleridge-Taylor: Fantasiestucke

Dvor�k's mature string quartets are masterly, all brimming with life-enhancing music, and Op 106 is no exception. The Tak�cs Quartet gives superlative accounts of both this and the apt coupling by a young Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

PRESTO MUSIC RECORDING OF THE WEEK

Despite both being for string quartet, both from the same year and indeed sharing a great many stylistic features, the Coleridge-Taylor and Dvor�k pieces here are still as different as chalk and cheese; youthful energy contrasting with mature retrospection, perhaps. But as a diptych they work perfectly, and the Tak�cs Quartet are equally at home in both. � Presto Music

The Tak�cs are impressive on this album: every microphrase, every note is considered. Their sound draws you in from the first moment [...]. To simultaneously hear the separate parts and the collective so beautifully is a treat indeed. � Gramophone

The selection closes with Dvorak's earlier Andante appassionato � a rejected slow movement from the Quartet in A Minor, Op. 12. It is a reflective close to this exuberant album, and aptly showcases the Takacs Quartet abiding technical assurance and emotional range. � BBC Music Magazine; Performance 4 STARS, Recording 4 STARS

Hough, Dutillieux & Ravel String Quartets CDA68400

'These are both powerful, brilliantyly imagined interpretations, painted in bold, rich colours and shaped with flashing virtuosity.' (Gramophone)

Joseph Haydn String Quartets Opp 42, 77 & 103 CDA68364

' You will not hear better string quartet playing anywhere in the world today.' (BBC Music Magazine)

'It's the highest-quality Haydn' (BBC Record Review)