Takács Quartet - Haydn - String Quartets, Op. 74 (2011)

The Takács Quartet, Hungarian but now resident in the U.S., takes string quartet playing back to its basics here, and does so transcendently (paradoxical as that may sound). You may find the playing a bit neutral at first, with Haydn's more dancelike rhythms rendered straightforwardly, but keep listening: each movement is a carefully polished jewel, with each instrument making up a set of perfectly sharp facets. This is the string quartet not just as dialogue but as true ensemble, with the dialogue shifting as Haydn's textures do. The fugal passages in the outer movements appear all the more clearly for being played circumspectly, and the mysterious harmonic turns and ambiguous pregnant pauses that are so characteristic of these late Haydn quartets have very rarely seemed quite so delicious. You could pick passages from any one of the three quartets, composed for concerts in London in 1793, as highlights, but if you sample one section let it be the opening movement of the String Quartet in G major, Op. 74/3 ("Der Reiter"), which has an almost ecstatic quality of lightness. Hyperion curiously does not specify the recording venue, but the engineering is top-notch.