The Takács are accuracy, instrumental beauty magnified by Hyperion’s sound recording, with a superb dosage of reverberation and an individualization of timbres. It is also and always a marvelous flexibility on the phrasings and an unparalleled reactivity in the management of an infinite palette of nuances. Usually the Quartet by Ravel is coupled with that of Debussy. In the “deluxe” versions, we add So at night, by Dutilleux, as did the New World String Quartet (this eminent record, which disappeared 20 years ago, can be found on the platforms). The Takács, who surpass the New Worlds in everything, especially in the sound worlds of Dutilleux, have chosen to promote a new work, The six encounters, 1er Quartet by Stephen Hough, pianist, writer and composer. This Francophile work, a cultivated ballad, was specially composed in 2021 as a tribute to the Groupe des Six (Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, Tailleferre) with a view to this coupling with Ravel and Dutilleux. Thoughtful and original.
To see in video