Based in Colorado since 1983, the Takacs String Quartet traces its founding and musical idiom to Budapest. Fittingly, the Takacs chose a program of works by composers of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.

The first piece of the Columbus Chamber Music Society concert last night in the Southern Theatre, Joseph Haydn's Quartet in C major, Opus 74, No. 1, was written on a grander scale than the composer's earlier works in this genre.

The Takacs took a somewhat restrained, ultra-classical approach, opting for detail over big sound in the first movement, which was hampered by periodic uncertainties of intonation. The group had greater success in the second- movement Andantino Grazioso. In the Takacs' hands, the movement had the feel of a leisurely serenade, kept moving by meticulous attention to rhythmic detail.

The Takacs performed the third movement Menuetto like the rest of the concert, with the warmer central European sound and much grace.

By this point, more at ease with the piece, they responded to the energetic demands of the Vivace final movement, highlighting the brief ground bass episodes to great effect.

Few composers of the 20th century have matched the combination of originality, audaciousness and substance of Czech Leos Janacek. His second string quartet -- and final completed work -- typifies these qualities.

The thematic unity of the first two movements of this autobiographical "Intimate Letters'' String Quartet was beautifully detailed by the Takacs, which demonstrated its command of, and affinity for, this modern masterpiece through all four movements, especially the achingly sentimental third movement Moderato.

The concluding work of the concert was the first of Beethoven's Opus 59 Rasumovsky quartets. From the first, the Takacs used an elegant, classical and refined -- perhaps restrained -- approach.

When interpreted this way, the Beethoven seems a stylistic letdown after the dynamics and scale of the Janacek, which should have been the concluding work of the program. Alas, the doctrine that 20th-century works must be isolated as the work just before intermission shows no sign of being repealed, despite the audience's enthusiasm for the Janacek last night.

Still, the soaring lines of the second movement of the Beethoven work did receive a slightly more exuberant brand of elegance. The Takacs' refusal to rush the pace or dynamics of the music allowed the introspections of the third movement to develop fully, in a carefully crafted interpretation. They concluded the Beethoven with a gracefully rendered allegro.

Recalled to the stage, they encored by showing what they could do without their bows by drawing a variety of plucked sounds from the allegro Pizzicato of Bartok's Quartet No. 4.