A year ago this past March, The Takacs Quartet, minus their second violinist, closed Tryon Concert Association’s 55th season. Their program of duets and trios was a high spot of that season, so their promise to return to Tryon Fine Arts Center on Nov. 15 with all personnel was good news indeed.
Recognized as one of the world’s greatest string ensembles, The Takacs Quartet has won countless awards for performances and recordings and performs more than 80 concerts a year worldwide. I remember vividly that this group’s high standards were not compromised for even a moment and we were once again engaged, respected and rewarded throughout the evening.
The vicissitudes of life beget many works of art that can themselves beget many more. Most can name a poem that became a song or recall a tragedy fictionalized into a best-selling novel. Leos Janacek (d. 1928) joined an interesting bandwagon begun, unwittingly, by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1803 with his ninth violin sonata, which was dedicated to violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. This work inspired Leo Tolstoy to write the novella “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1889) which in turn inspired the Prinet painting of the same name in 1901, soon followed by a Broadway play in 1906, a silent film adaptation in 1915, and then Janacek’s first string quartet in 1923.
As pointed out by first violinist Edward Dusinbere, and elucidated by Joella Utley’s fine program notes, Tolstoy’s anti-passion premise serving as inspiration for a musical approximation of “rage, murder, shock, regret, and despair” is interestingly ironic. I thoroughly enjoyed this definitive performance and was awed anew by the group’s symbiotic phrasing and coloration. When players are equal in sense and sensibility, no one has to show off. The piece seemed to have been pulled whole from Janacek’s head. He would have been very pleased.
Benjamin Britten (d. 1976) wrote his first string quartet at age nine and remained devoted to this instrumentation throughout his life. “String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25” was composed and premiered in America in 1941. The ensemble inhabited this quirky piece accomplishing lengthy passages of high harmonics without sounding like insects and imbuing numerous silences with rarefied air. Indeed, the treatment of silence can separate the pros from the wannabes. Americans are often uncomfortable with silence, yet rests are as important as notes. If you don’t pause long enough, the whole piece can become like driving a car with an axle out of round – you’ll get there, but you’ll wonder what felt so odd.
Antonin Dvorak’s “String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 51” is filled with idioms of folk music from his native Bohemia, but the overall effect is beyond light and simple. The group’s ever-so-slightly messier playing in this piece reminded me of the hearty, Slavic flavor the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra put forth on this stage some years ago. Whether or not Takacs planned to add authenticity and drama by choosing heart over “perfection” doesn’t really matter. The effect was invigorating.
This foursome will never disappoint. Hear them someday somewhere.