Mozart: String Quintets K. 515 & 516 Takács Quartet & Timothy Ridout

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): String Quintet in C Major, K. 515:
• 1 Mozart: String Quintet in C Major, K. 515: I. Allegro 13:32
• 2 Mozart: String Quintet in C Major, K. 515: II. Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio 05:42
• 3 Mozart: String Quintet in C Major, K. 515: III. Andante 08:40
• 4 Mozart: String Quintet in C Major, K. 515: IV. Allegro 07:28
• 5 Mozart: String Quintet in G Minor, K. 516: I. Allegro 10:53
• 6 Mozart: String Quintet in G Minor, K. 516: II. Menuetto. Allegretto – Trio 05:06
• 7 Mozart: String Quintet in G Minor, K. 516: III. Adagio ma non troppo 07:59
• 8 Mozart: String Quintet in G Minor, K. 516: IV. Adagio – Allegro 10:12
• Total Runtime 01:09:32

Info for Mozart: String Quintets K. 515 & 516

With Mozart’s string quintets K. 515 and K. 516, the Takács Quartet presents its 21st album for Hyperion. The recording was made in 2025 during concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall. Timothy Ridout features as second violist, adding a strikingly distinctive voice to the ensemble’s sound, which has evolved over decades. For this internationally sought-after musician, this is his first recording with the Takács Quartet. Composed in 1787, these works occupy a special place in Mozart’s chamber music output. The addition of the viola lends the ensemble greater sonic richness and opens up a richly nuanced interplay among the middle voices. A characteristic feature is the alternation between passages of transparent texture and sections of great harmonic and expressive tension. At the same time, the album marks a significant milestone in the ensemble’s history: founding member András Fejér can be heard for the last time as the Takács Quartet’s cellist on a recording after 51 years. The international press has praised the quartet for its “passion, poetry, clarity and balance” (The Times) and “the very highest standard of performance” (Prospect). The Daily Telegraph described it as the “undisputed best string quartet in the world”.

Takács Quartet:
Edward Dusinberre, 1st violin
Harumi Rhodes, 2nd violin
Richard O’Neill, viola
András Fejér, cello
Guest:
Timothy Ridout, 2nd viola

Please Note: we do not offer the 192kHz version of this album, because our analysis clearly showed, that the 192kHz does not reach a frequency spectrum, that would justify to offer 192kHz. Hence we offer the 96kHz version.

Takács Quartet
As the world renowned Takács Quartet embarks upon the 2026-2027 season, Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes (violins) and Richard O’Neill (viola) welcome new cellist Mihai Marica. The ensemble is excited about varied projects that include a recording project of works by Gabriela Lena Frank and a tour of César Franck’s piano quintet with Jeremy Denk. For Hyperion Records the Takács will release an album of two Mozart viola quintets with violist Timothy Ridout. In August 2026 the ensemble was awarded Chamber Music America’s most prestigious honor, the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, honoring those who have made significant and lasting contributions to enrich and foster a greater appreciation for chamber music.

The Takács maintains a busy international touring schedule. As Associate Artists at London’s Wigmore Hall, the group will play four concerts that include performances with pianist Steven Osborne and works by Haydn, Schubert, Carlos Simon, Gabriela Lena Frank, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. During the season the ensemble will play at other prestigious European centers including the Konzerthaus Vienna, Vilnius, Bergen, and Utrecht.

The group’s North American engagements include concerts in New York at Carnegie Hall and for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, University of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Santa Monica, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Portland, and at the University of Maryland where the quartet continues its position as Visiting Artists. The quartet will become Official Chamber Music Ensemble at the Segerstrom Center.

The members of theTakács are Artists in Residence at the University of Colorado and during the summer months join the faculty at the Music Academy of the West, running an intensive quartet seminar there.

The Takács has recorded for Hyperion since 2005 and all their other recordings are available to stream at https://www.hyperion-streaming.co.uk In 2021 the Takács won a Presto Music Recording of the Year Award for their recordings of string quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, and a Gramophone Award with pianist Garrick Ohlsson for piano quintets by Beach and Elgar. Other releases for Hyperion feature works by Haydn, Schubert, Janáček, Smetana, Debussy and Britten, as well as piano quintets by César Franck and Shostakovich (with Marc-André Hamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms and Dvořák (with Lawrence Power). For their CDs on the Decca/London label, the Quartet has won three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, three Japanese Record Academy Awards, Disc of the Year at the inaugural BBC Music Magazine Awards, and Ensemble Album of the Year at the Classical Brits. Full details of all recordings can be found in the recordings section of the Quartet's website.

The Takács Quartet is known for its innovative programming. In July 2024 the ensemble gave the premiere of Kachkaniraqmi by Gabriela Lena Frank, a concerto for solo quartet and string orchestra. Since 2021-22 the ensemble has partnered regularly with bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro in a program featuring new works by Clarice Assad and Bryce Dessner, commissioned by Music Accord. In 2014 the Takács performed a program inspired by Philip Roth’s novel Everyman with Meryl Streep at Princeton, and again with her at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in 2015. They first performed Everyman at Carnegie Hall in 2007 with Philip Seymour Hoffman. They have toured 14 cities with the poet Robert Pinsky, and played regularly with the Hungarian Folk group Muzsikas.

In 2014 the Takács became the first string quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal. In 2012, Gramophone announced that the Takács was the first string quartet to be inducted into its Hall of Fame. The ensemble also won the 2011 Award for Chamber Music and Song presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.

The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai, and András Fejér, while all four were students. The group received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Members of the Takács Quartet are the grateful beneficiaries of an instrument loan by the Drake Foundation. We are grateful to be Thomastik-Infeld Artists.

Booklet for Mozart: String Quintets K. 515 & 516