Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor (fragment), D703 ‘Quartettsatz'

“This is exactly the kind of aristocratic, intellectually commanding playing you would expect of the Takacs Quartet...The Takacs pace the argument superbly, so that everything in this huge, complex structure seems to happen at exactly the right time...Yet for all its Olympian beauty and grandeur, this performance isn't quite so strong when it comes to capturing the human side of Schubert.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ***

“As anticipated, there's much to admire in their pacing and detailing of the piece. Subtle changes of colour abound...Tempi are generally very well-judged...The playing is consistently impressive but what I missed was a sense of fearlessness...the flexibility of the leader Edward Dusinberre's phrasing is a particular joy, as is his sound - that ideal mix of warmth and precision” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“The recording — wonderfully vivid and “present” — is all that one expects from the producer, Andrew Keener, and the quality of the playing and musical insights is superlative...The sonorities the Takacs players and Kirshbaum bring to this great music are quasi-orchestral, but they convey the intimate pages of the score in a manner that is both soul-baring and deeply moving.” Sunday Times, 28th October 2012

“Their performance, with Ralph Kirshbaum fitting effortlessly into the ensemble as second cellist, is never conceived as a reassuring tour around one of western music's supreme achievements. There's always an undertow of unease...It's a formidably satisfying performance” The Guardian, 25th October 2012 *****

“... playing of power and brilliance... the Lindsay Quartet will give great pleasure and satisfaction... their highly-charged, intensely committed approach to the music is impressive and their CD is the one to have” Gramophone Magazine

“Almost all the players who perform here seem stirred enough by the music's pathos and power to rise to the occasion...[to give] an intense, sweeping account of the work. I have no complaints, and for anyone who doesn't want the final degree of penetrating lyricism and anguish which you find in the very finest readings...this may prove an ideal version.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

“The Tokyo String Quartet with David Watkin promise much as they traverse the slow harmonic progression that opens the first movement...They finish as impressively as they begin; but the middle movements arouse reservations...A degree of objectivity throughout weakens the reach to Elysium...The Tokyo stand back, refusing the minatory experience.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012

“A great deal of care and thought about phrasing, articulation, accents and dynamics has evidently gone into this impressive performance of the quintet...As a result, the essentially driven, haunted character of the work comes out unusually strongly...The Quartettsatz is vividly played, and it’s a bonus to hear the fragmentary andante.” Sunday Times, 27th November 2011

“The superlative technical skills of these young Russian-Israelis, and a tendency to squeeze out every drop of expression, can actually obstruct the music they play so brilliantly. Thus, the natural sweetness of the D minor andante’s major-key variation is so overemphasised as almost to negate its purpose. That, however, is the obverse of their great virtues. Death and the Maiden is a haunted work, and the way they seize on the tiniest detail to increase the tension - a pianissimo tremolo, a brief, explosive forte - is often thrilling. They need only relax a little to be genuinely outstanding.” Sunday Times, 25th May 2008 ***

“[The Jerusalem Quartet's] recording of Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet finds them at their most uncompromising, with an epic, angry interpretation of a work usually considered elegiac and consolatory. From the furiously articulated opening chords, this is first and foremost a howl of rage against encroaching mortality. The integrity of the performance is never in doubt, and the playing is often breathtaking in its commitment and fire, but the unremitting bleakness of it all can be as forbidding as it is impressive. Its companion piece, the C Minor Quartetsatz, is similarly interpreted in the starkest of colours, with the dialogues between the first violin (Andrei Pavlovsky) and cello (Kyril Zlotnikov) sounding not so much like duets as duels. An admirable disc, though one that's also hard to like.” The Guardian, 9th May 2008 ***

“Passion and a feverish energy characterise this young Israeli quartet. First up is Schubert’s magnificent Quartettsatz, and the temperature continues for Death and the Maiden. Yet they’re never undisciplined – the cellist even keeps his head playing Jacqueline du Pré’s cello (loaned by Daniel Barenboim). Other groups get closer to Schubert’s tender side, but for racing blood, go to Jerusalem.” The Times, 9th May 2008 ****

“The youthful Jerusalem Quartet… are to be heard on an outstanding disc… Their mastery of rubato is as refined as that of any contemporary group, and this disc is as near to perfection as one can possibly find.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2008 *****