Takács Quartet Moves from Grammys to Yardley Hall
Johnson County Community College
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The Takács Quartet won the disc of the year award at the inaugural BBC Music Awards for its three-disc recording of Beethoven’s late string quartets in March 2006. In May, they received a 2006 Classical Brit Award for the same album.
“Hearing Takács in their beautiful and challenging Beethoven is like tasting a vintage brew which has mellowed over the years, yet which is still excitingly fresh on the palate,” the BBC magazine’s jury wrote in its citation.
Carlsen Center patrons had a rare opportunity to hear the quartet perform an all- Beethoven program in April 2005. Takács Quartet returns to the Carlsen Center with a program of three composers at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center, Johnson County Community College. Artists Insights begin at 7 p.m. The program will be Debussy string quartet in G minor, Op. 10; Shoshtakovitch string quartet in F minor, Op. 122; and Beethoven string quartet in A minor, Op. 132.
The talented Takács (pronounced TA-kash) are violinists Edward Dusinberre and Károly Schranz, violist Geraldine Walther and cellist András Fejér. The inherent relationship of the violin, viola and cello and the ongoing bond of these musicians make their performances both deeply moving and vigorously passionate.
Walther, appointed violist starting in the 2005-2006 season, makes her Carlsen Center debut at this performance, replacing former violist Roger Tapping. In the review of Walther’s first appearance with Takács in Ann Arbor in March 2006, the Playbill reviewer wrote: “Would the group's in-the-moment chemistry still be there? How about the liveliness of the interplay for which the group is known, or the extraordinary balancing of voices? To judge by Wednesday’s performance ... fans can exhale a sigh of relief and pleasure.”
The Takács Quartet was formed by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Gabor Ormai, Schranz and Fejér in 1975, while all four were students at Budapest’s Liszt Academy. Now entering its 31st season, the Takács Quartet has performed repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert to Bartok, Britten, Andras Schiff, Janacek, Dutilleux and Sheng in virtually every music capital in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan, as well as at prestigious festivals.
Now based in Boulder, Colo., the quartet has held a residency at the University of Colorado since 1983. In 2005, members of the Takács were named associate artists of London’s South Bank Center.
The Takács have given many prestigious concerts. They performed a cycle of three concerts at the Salzburg Festival featuring the quartets of Bartók and Brahms. The quartet made its Lincoln Center debut on the Great Performers Series and performed a six-concert Haydn Festival with pianist Andras Schiff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (repeated in London’s Wigmore Hall). The quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut in 1992.
During one season, the Takács Quartet performs more than 50 concerts in the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia.
The first volume of the Takács’ recording of Beethoven's middle quartets (Op. 59 and 74) received the Grammy Award for “Best Chamber Music Album 2002” and the Gramophone’s “2002 Chamber Music Recording of the Year.” Volume two (early quartets) of the Beethoven cycle was released in January 2004. The final volume of the late quartets, which received the aforementioned BBC Music Awards, was also awarded a 2005 Gramophone Award. The quartet won its first Gramophone Award in 1998 for its recording of the six quartets in the Bartók cycle. In 2005, Takács Quartet signed a contract with Hyperion Records.
Tickets for the Takács Quartet are $30 and $20, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office, 913-469-4445, or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter.
