Nat Brandt, in his “Con Brio,” a delightful memoir about the Budapest Quartet, quotes a brochure of the 92nd Street Y from 1938 that states: “If you are a musician you will appreciate the importance of this announcement, if not, just ask any real musician, and you will be convinced.” The occasion was the first New York performance of the complete cycle of the 16 Beethoven string quartets. That the residents of the western hemisphere’s most cosmopolitan and cultured city had to wait for 110 years after the death of the composer for this celebration to occur is perhaps disappointing, but not surprising. The performance of any one of these works is daunting; to attempt them all is to challenge Heaven itself.

Hardly a man is now alive that remembers when the Budapest was populated by Hungarians. Certainly by 1938 they were all long departed. But now another very brave quartet, originally from Hungary but slowly internationalizing, is presenting their own traversal of the bittersweet 16 over six concerts at Alice Tully Hall. Takacs himself (Gabor Takacs-Nagy) has moved on to become concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, but the ensemble that he founded is thriving. The men in the middle – second violinist Karoly Schranz and cellist Andras Fejer – are charter members, while those that flank them – first violinist Edward Dusinberre and violist Roger Tapping, who is leaving the group at the end of this season – are relative newcomers. For the past few seasons, they have been living with these quartets and taking them on the road, presenting series elongated over several years in various American cities. For this current month of January, they are all ours.

The entire event began with a solid performance of the G Major, Op. 18, No. 2 that illustrated immediately the depth of technical expertise that will mark this extended experience. The Takacs tend to play quietly and express great respect for this seminal music. In fact, they may have a bit too much respect for its composer.

Unlike other top quartets who specialize in the sotto voce approach, say, for example, the eloquent Panocha ensemble from the neighboring Czech Republic, this current group works so hard to insure that every note is perfect, that individual crescendi and decrescendi of single notes are exquisite, that inner voices are always clean and crisp, that, after a while, the listener becomes fixated on the professionalism of the technique, rather than on the wonder of the music. Certainly vitality was sacrificed in this initial performance, slain on the altar of hero worship.

I do not want to minimize the superb technical abilities of this quartet. As part of their residency, they will be holding a master class. I am sure that their advice and council will be very valuable for younger aspirants. But when perfection becomes coolness, as it did in the normally emotional “Serioso” quartet, then the end result is less than transcendent. When an ensemble tackles these masterworks, they are by definition throwing themselves into a competition with their contemporaries and with history. This Takacs version, although impressive on its face, is a far cry from a more intensely invested reading by a current group such as the Alban Berg Quartet, and even pales in comparison to the ethereal joys of the original Takacs players, whom I had the great good fortune to hear on this very stage around 1990. The Allegro assai vivace, ma serioso, the third movement heart of the piece, could have used a serious infusion of good, old-fashioned Beethovenian thunder.

Let’s see. Sixteen quartets divided by six concerts. How to make them symmetrical? The Takacs solution is to repeat the B Flat Major, Op. 130, jettison the alternate ending and add the “Grosse Fuge,” supporting the valid theory that the thirteenth quartet becomes an entirely new piece of music when it precedes such a masterful conclusion. This night, we were introduced to the more modest version.

Technical prowess can indeed carry the day in small doses. I could only listen in awe as this dexterous group presented a spidery Presto, a miniature so spectacular as to make me rethink my dissatisfaction with their performance as a whole. I would imagine that these men can also deftly pick their way through one of those challenging works of Anton Webern, such as the Bagatelles or the Five Movements for String Quartet. At this level of derringdo, no intimidating tempo seems forbidden to them. It may very well be worth attending the reprise of this piece in its altered state, just to hear these few minutes of sublimity.

Another venerable quartet, the Lindsays from Britain, will be disbanding this summer after 40 years of very distinguished service. Their last utterance will be the Beethoven Op. 135. What could be more appropriate?

The Takacs Quartet will perform all of Beethoven’s string quartets this month at Alice Tully Hall. The remaining performances are tonight at 7:30 p.m., January 21 & 28 at 8 p.m., and January 23 & 30 at 5 p.m. (Lincoln Center, 212-875-5788).