Beethoven, full strength

To listen to three of Beethoven's Quartets as played by the Takacs is an experience that leaves one emotionally drained. The players were on top form on Sunday afternoon in St Stephen's Church (the Pepper Canister) the performance left one astonished by its inexhaustible resourcefulness.

Beethoven's fecund imagination was matched by the ability of the players to recreate the tremendous energy of the music.

Starting with the Quartet in C minor, Op. 18 No. 4, followed by the Quartet in F, Op. 59 No. 1 (Rasumovsky) and ending with the Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, the concert was an exploration of Beethoven's most serious side in which he seems to give expression to feelings never expressed in music before. These works have been called metaphysical, transcendental, and, though the precise meaning of these words in relation to music has never been settled, they do adumbrate Beethoven's remarkable qualities which can be shared to the full with the help of such sensitive intermediaries as the Takacs.