The Takács Quartet’s Beethoven cycle dates back to the early 2000s, when it became an instant, award-winning classic. Beethoven: The Late String Quartets, from 2004, is a magnificent achievement—the fruit of many years spent living with complex and profound music—and reveals something new every time you return to it. The Takács are masters of these scores: Attentive to texture, detail, and the importance of each line, they’re wonderfully in tune with Beethoven’s far-seeing vision. Even the silences between the notes seem to be full of intensity. It all results in a rich and rewarding listen, which has been beautifully recorded.