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Breathtaking Beethoven
Hearing the Takács String Quartet is an exercise in ear training. They have that polished, burnished and seamless sound that comes when four musicians play with orchestral unity and unselfish responsibility to one another.
It was cold outside the Folly Theatre last Saturday night, but the heat generated from the stage as the Takács String Quartet took on Beethoven and Haydn was enough to banish the chill inside. As part of the exploration of Beethoven quartet works this season with The Friends of Chamber Music, the Takács presented early and late Beethoven quartets as well as a quartet by Joseph Haydn. In all three, the Takács exhibited their particular brand of drama and virtuosity that has earned them justifiably exuberant praise around the world.
The Takács String Quartet was founded in 1975 in Budapest and now is in residence at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Original members Karoly Schranz, violin and Andras Fejer, cello, are joined by Edward Dusinberre, violin, and Geraldine Walther, viola, in nearly 90 worldwide engagements a year.
The early Beethoven Quartet in C Minor in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 opened the program. An atypical work in that it has no slow movement, this quartet nonetheless opens with a breathtakingly delicate touch to the strings that explodes into the passionate Allegro ma non tanto of the first movement.
As breathtaking as the first Beethoven quartet was, the Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, which closed the evening's program, was gut-wrenchingly beautiful as it built from its dark, brooding opening to the achingly lovely Adagio followed in effortless transition by the agitated emotion of the final movements.
Hearing the Takács is an exercise in ear training. They have that polished, burnished and seamless sound that comes when four musicians play with orchestral unity and unselfish responsibility to one another. Especially in the evening's second quartet, Haydn's Quartet No. 54 in B-flat Major, Op. 71, No. 1, the interplay between instruments inherent in Haydn's composition was lifted to dazzling heights as the sounds of each instrument rose and fell in effortless continuity. In seconds, one can turn from violin to viola to cello to violin, often barely able to discern one from the other, so carefully do these musicians blend the timbre and focus of their sound. Then one is startled out of a contemplation of this musical blend by a sudden display of solo technique and clarity from a single instrument, only to hear it pull away again as quickly as it appeared.
One takes for granted that the listening experience is in the foreground of any classical concert, but to watch the performers of the Takács String Quartet is to see four performers collaborating in a sophisticated communication of music that never ceases to instruct and inspire.
REVIEW:
The Friends of Chamber Music
Takács String Quartet
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Folly Theatre
12th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or online at www.chambermusic.org
Cover photo by Ellen Appel
Classical and Musical Theatre Contributor
Sarah Young is a freelance writer and performer in opera, theatre, choral and musical theatre. She has been seen locally with Wichita Grand Opera, Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Kansas City Civic Opera, Lawrence Community Theatre, Chestnut Fine Arts Center and in other local venues. She studied voice at the University of Kansas, and has been trained in artist programs at Indiana University, Aspen Opera Theatre and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
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