The Takács Quartet
Edward Dusinberre, violin
Károly Schranz, violin
Geraldine Walther, viola
András Fejér, cello
Official Website:
http://www.takacsquartet.com/
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The Takács Quartet is recognized as one
of the world’s finest string quartets. Quartet in Residence at the
University of Colorado since 1983, the group has been described by
music critics as having “the instinct to play from inside the music.”
Formed at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy,
the Takács has won numerous chamber music prizes worldwide. The group
has made 16 recordings on the Decca/London label. Its recordings of
the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle prompted the Cleveland Plain Dealer
to write “The Takács might play this repertoire better than any
quartet of the past or present.”
Date:
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Corbett Auditorium
University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music
Program
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Mozart
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String Quartet K. 421
Allegro
Andante
Menuetto: Allegretto
Allegretto ma non troppo
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Shostakovich
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Quartet No. 11
Introduction: Andantino
Scherzo: Allegretto
Recitative: Adagio
Etude: Allegro
Humoresque: Allegro
Elegy: Adagio
Finale: Moderato
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～
intermission ～
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Debussy
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Quartet in G minor, Op.
10
Animé et trčs décidé
Scherzo: Assez vif et bien rythmé
Andantino doucement expressif
Trčs modéré - Trčs mouvementé - Trčs animé
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About the Program (Printable Version)
It
is a pleasure to welcome the return of the Takács Quartet to our
concerts. Their well-chosen program recognizes the
quarter-millenium
of Mozart and the Shostakovich centennial, while the late 19th Century
Debussy quartet, looking forward to the 20th Century, in many ways
links the other two.
It
is well known that Mozart's works in minor keys are few, yet of the
greatest significance. Among these is the Quartet in D minor, K.
421, dating from 1783, the second of the famous set of six dedicated
to Haydn. In the opening
movement the minor key tonality, the rather complex instrumental
texture (everyone has something of importance to say) and the
multiplicity of musical motifs all contribute to a restless energy
which propels a compact, therefore richly concentrated, piece of
music. A little figure sweeping up to four repeated notes, heard
five times in succession in the first violin at the end of the
exposition, recurs in various forms in all of the other movements.
The second movement is based on a rather Haydn-like theme in 6/8 time.
A violent outburst occurs twice in the midsection of this movement.
The minuet is wonderfully contrapuntal, with a chromatic descending
cello line which is later taken up by the other instruments. The
light-textured trio is a sharp contrast. The finale, again in
6/8 time, is a set of variations; the cross-rhythms in the second
variation and the viola lead in the third are especially fine touches.
The lively coda makes much of the unifying repeated-note figure.
In
recent years the fifteen string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich have
joined Bartok's six as 20th Century standard repertoire - in each case
the surge in popularity coming after the composer's death. The
Shostakovich cycle is part of the great rebirth of quartet writing
after the relative neglect of the form during the late 19th Century.
(Now may we expect to see the many fine examples from such as David
Diamond, Vagn Holmboe, Robert Simpson or Elizabeth Maconchy -
all 20th Century composers deceased within the past ten years - emerge
from the shadows?) Each of the Shostakovich quartets is in a
different key (No. 11 is in F minor), suggesting that the composer had
hoped to write twenty-four - he had already used such unusual keys as
F-sharp major and E-flat minor. Quartet No. 11 is the first of
four dedicated to the individual members of the Beethoven Quartet, the
ensemble which first performed all but one of the cycle. No. 11,
written in 1966, is special because the dedicatee, Vassily Shirinsky,
second violinist in the quartet and a close friend of Shostakovich,
had recently died. (We'll hear another of Shostakovich's deeply
felt memorial pieces, the Piano Trio No. 2, later in this season.)
Like Beethoven's Op. 131, this quartet is in seven sections, played
without pause, and like Beethoven's Op. 95, it is concise and in F
minor. Indeed, Shostakovich wrote, "I feel very close to
him (Beethoven)." Again, like Beethoven, Shostakovich does
wonders with the most naive or banal material, such as the cello's
response to the opening violin solo in the Introduction.
This cello motif forms a unifying role in the entire work (much
as we heard in the Mozart), and soon appears in the Scherzo. The
dramatic Recitative, scurrying Etude and an unsettling Humoresque are
all brief sections. The climax of the quartet is heard in the
more extended, eloquent Elegy and Finale, the latter effectively
recapitulating the entire work.
Debussy's
lone quartet is a relatively early work from 1893, but it was this
piece, together with the "Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Faun" in 1894 which brought his name forcefully to the attention
of concert audiences. Having stated the G-minor tonality in the
title (rare for Debussy) and assigned an opus number (the only such in
his entire output!), Debussy evidently thought it appropriate that his
new work have proper credentials, but concessions to academic
conventions of the time ended there. The music itself offered a
new concept of string quartet sound.
Echoes of Javanese gamelan orchestras, the old church modes,
unusual treatments of common chords, veiled colors and shimmering
textures, music "suggesting rather that stating" (as Homer
Ulrich puts it), all this enabled Debussy to put a new face on a
classical form. The
entire quartet grows out of the initial motif, with a little triplet
"hinge" joining the first two bars assuming particular
importance. The first movement is vigorous and virile, the
second boldly original in its evocation of the gamelans. In the
third movement Debussy shifts the tonal center from G to D-flat,
reinforcing the shift in mood from athletic to contemplative.
The finale begins with a masterly transition from D-flat back to G,
and with renewed energy the transformed initial figure sweeps to a
conclusion full of youthful joie de vivre.
Edwin
Daley
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