In Very Loving, Admiring, Cheery Memory of the Wonderful Roger Tapping

Roger Tapping was instrumental in my falling in love with the viola. I owe Roger countless hours of peerless chamber-music education, courtesy #TakácsQuartet (and a bit of @theJSQ). I admired him as a person and as a player. Roger Tapping has passed away. I will always remember him very warmly.

Here's a conversation with him from a few years back that hopefully conveys a small bit of how much I have cherished Roger Tapping.

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Life After Takács – Roger Tapping’s Washington Recital

Roger Tapping is a known quantity among chamber music aficionados in Washington – especially those who have followed the Takács Quartet’s performances when he was on violist-duty for that formidable group. Since leaving the Takács Quartet in 2005 to spend more time with his family, Roger Tapping has continuously shown up in performances with (often very young) quartets at the Corcoran Gallery and Bethesda Music Society where he performed all of Mozart’s String Quintets with the Jupiter, Parker, Daedalus, and Auryn Quartets. Last January he joined the Klavier Trio Amsterdam for the Fauré Piano Quartet.

Beethoven, String Quartets op.18, Takács Quartet Decca UK | DE | FR Beethoven, String Quartets opp.59, 74, Takács Quartet Decca UK | DE | FR Beethoven, The Late String Quartets, Takács Quartet Decca UK | DE | FR Bartók, The String Quartets, Takács Quartet (II) Decca UK | DE | FR Korngold / Schoenberg, Sextet / Verklärte Nacht, Raphael Ensemble Hyperion UK | DE | FR Dvořák, Quintet, Sextet, Raphael Ensemble Hyperion UK | DE | FR

Retiring from playing in a professional chamber group must be tantamount to enjoying a new life. Instead of being on tour four, five weeks at a time, Tapping – who had previously served in the Raphael Ensemble and the Allegri Quartet – is now away from home for only a few days at a time. This not only means that Tapping can enjoy family life and focus more on teaching at the New England Conservatory but also that he can observe other string quartets he performs with from a detached point of view. Being one step removed, the intricacies of quartet–life become “sociologically interesting”: to see how four young players approach musical problems or react to new music; to observe how veteran groups resolve their differences in as many different – and the same – ways as, for example, married couples might approach theirs.

Though the occasional, wistful pangs of nostalgia for the Takács days still occur, Tapping – who recently spoke to me about his current activities and plans – seems to quite enjoy his newfound peace and the ability to moonlight with great chamber groups, both young and established. For example the Pražák Quartet which Tapping attested to feeling immediately comfortable with – perhaps because their wonderful balance of vigor and warmth is, at least to my ears, related to the playing of the Takács.

For the future we can expect lots of Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven Quintets with Tapping and a host of fine string quartets but also the Beethoven String Trios, the type of chamber music formation that Tapping generally considers the ‘scariest’ to play because they offer no place to hide. Beethoven’s op.9, specifically, he described as particularly honest, unsentimental exponents thereof – in short: “The real thing”. (In so elucidating these works – works that I have hitherto not responded to with much enthusiasm – Tapping makes me want to seek out the Leopold Trio’s recordings that he recommends.)

Roger Tapping also plans on doing more viola recitals – such as will take place this Friday, the 29^th at La Maison Française (7.30PM) where Tapping and pianist Judith Gordon will present a diverse program of Bach (a Gamba Sonata) , Fauré (Après un rêve), Hindemith (Sonata for solo iola), Schumann (Adagio & Allegro op.70), and Shostakovich (Sonata op.147). These recitals (and concerts) are an aspect of a non-chamber violist’s life he finds most pleasing, not the least because getting to play the melody for more than just two bars at a time is a completely new experience.

After talking about his present and future plans, I could not help harking back once more on his time in previous chamber groups. With the Raphael Ensemble from 1983 until 1990 he played alongside composer/performer Sally Beamish and participated in highly regarded recordings on Hyperion, including the Brahms, Dvořák, and KorngoldSextets. With the Allegri Quartet he got to play next to the Pablo Casals student Bruno Schrecker who Tapping recalls fondly as the best bass line player he’d met. With this longest continually performing of British string quartets he played from 1990 until 1995 when, seeking a clean break in his private life, he auditioned for the Takács Quartet who needed to fill the violist’s seat after Gábor Omai had passed away.

He joined Károly Schranz, András Fejér, and Edward Dusinberre (who had himself just become a Takácsi 18 months before Tapping’s arrival), and contributed what was doubtlessly a golden age for the quartet, culminating in CD surveys of the complete Bartók and Beethoven quartets. They are widely considered first choices among modern digital recordings of either. Tapping mentions both when asked about his favorite recordings from that time. When he recently put on the Beethoven (which he had not listened to for a while, in part to avoid overt nostalgia) to see how his group had solved certain problems back then, he found himself “pleasantly surprised” how, despite the continuous development and evolution of how the Quartet approached these works, very nicely the Beethoven still held up. When pressed to chose between them, though, he points to the Bartók as their proudest achievement. (I’m not surprised: I fell in love with that recording nearly four years ago and that love has never ceased.)

The finest way to enjoy Mr. Tapping’s art, short of attending his recitals and concerts in the region, is through his recordings with the Takács Quartet and Raphael Ensemble. On the right I have listed some of my favorites in which he participates – none of which I would want to be without.

The recital at La Maison Française will be recorded by WETA and broadcast later in the year.

10/10 on ClassicsToday: The Reference - The Takács Quartet’s Beethoven Cycle

The Reference: The Takács Quartet’s Beethoven Cycle

by Jens F. Laurson

At the Freer Gallery, or at the Corcoran Gallery (when it was still a chamber music oasis in Washington, DC), or at the more humble Landon School Mondzac Performing Arts Center, the Takács Quartet made my life better with their performances of Bartók, Beethoven, Haydn,... Continue Reading

Beethoven: Quartet in B flat major, op.130 - V. Cavatina: Adagio molto espressivo

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Best Recordings of 2017

Time for a review of classical CDs that were outstanding in 2017 (published in whole on Forbes.com here and here (Part II)).

My lists for the previous years: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, (2011 – “Almost”), 2010, (2010 – “Almost”), 2009, (2009 – “Almost”), 2008, (2008 - "Almost") 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

# 1 - New Release

Franz Schubert, Die Schöne Müllerin, Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber, Sony Classical

Franz Schubert, Die Schöne Müllerin, Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber Sony Classical

Hyperbole has little room in classical music – it’s too blunt, usually inaccurate, ever unsubtle, mostly unsuitable, and a bit in bad taste. But it gets eyeballs.

And in this case, some hyperbole might just apply. Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber, that perfect symbiosis for all matters Lied, mélodie, and artsong (but especially Lied), have… has re-recorded Franz Schubert’s song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin after putting their first go at it on record 14 years ago (Arte Nova).

I had been counting the days, for years. GerhaherHuber (one word) is to Lied what Willie Mays and Babe Ruth, rolled into one, were to Baseball. (Read the full review here: Review: Oh, Only The Best Schöne Müllerin Ever!)...

# 1 – Reissue

Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartets +, Takács Quartet, Decca

Ludwig van Beethoven, The String Quartets +, Takács Quartet, Decca

...taking everything into consideration, across all 16 ¼ quartets, my favorite so far remains the Takács Quartet. And not just mine: Their interpretations have long been the rightly forerunner among modern interpretations of the Beethoven String Quartets. Interestingly these recordings – jewels in the Decca catalogue – were long treated more like step-children. The line-up in those years was that of Edward Dusinberre, Károly Schranz, Roger Tapping, András Fejér, which was an 11-year golden period for the quartet (Roger Tapping left in 2005).

The recordings had to be financed because Decca wouldn’t front the bill, despite their great success. (Admittedly, Decca couldn’t have known who successful they’d become… at least not before the first box had hit the market.)...



The complete list of the "Best Classical Recordings of 2017 on Forbes.com can be found here, for new releases. For re-issues, the link is here



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Takács Quartet @ KC

Franck, Piano Quintet / Debussy, String Quartet, M.-A. Hamelin, Takács Quartet (Hyperion, 2016)

We used to hear the Takács Quartet more frequently in the Washington area. As long as they come back to these parts every year or two, Ionarts can probably survive. The most recent chance to hear them was on Wednesday evening, presented again by the Fortas Chamber Music Series at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. In between we remain on the life support of recordings, which the group continues to release at the rate of one or two each year. Although the two founding members, second violinist Károly Schranz and cellist András Féjer, are not getting any younger, the quartet adds to its discography at a dizzying pace, always hungry for new vistas in the repertoire. The next disc, available next month, combines music by Franck and Debussy.

Something about the opening work on this program, Dvořák's 14th string quartet (A-flat major, op. 105), just did not sit right. The first movement is somewhat episodic, and the many stops and starts did not always sound unified. The scherzo, with its furiant-like hemiola shifts, was light and even more relaxed in tempo in the trio, but by the third movement there was the sense that maybe the golden era of the Takács had come and gone, with intonation issues cropping up and the feeling that the work had not been fully digested. Happily, what followed this less than polished rendition showed it was only a fluke, a rare example of the Takács missing the target and not a sign of general decline.

Other Reviews: Robert Battey, The dependable artistry of Takács Quartet (Washington Post, April 22)

In the rest of the evening's selections, the group was back in their accustomed sweet spot, beginning with Webern's youthful, tragic Langsamer Satz from 1905. The piece is labeled "in E-flat major," which should be enough to signal that it is not the Webern you might expect. The Takács teased out the carefully layered voices and lush harmonies, always clearly putting one in the foreground over the others, balanced even in the loudest sections.

The third of Beethoven's "Razumovsky" quartets (C major, op. 59/3) was even more winning, from the enigmatic opening chords, which proceed by sneaky chromatic shifts from an F# fully diminished seventh chord to C major. The fast section was chatty and charming, mercurial but not overly fast, and the drawn-out setup of the recapitulation was excellent, as was first violinist Edward Dusinberre on the little cadenza moment. All in all, an eye-twinkler of a piece, followed by wonderful, warm viola solos in the slow movement, with the cello staying extra-soft on the pizzicato accompaniment. This movement's restraint and dark quality are so Takács, and no one does this melancholy tone better. The Menuetto was a contrast, ultra-genial in nature, with the first violin's ornamented lines in the trio not overshadowing the melody. The concluding fugal finale was fun and fleet, the wry side of the Takács sound.

Ionarts-at-Large: The Takács Quartet in Vienna

The heart of chamber music of Vienna beats in the Mozart-Saal. But the offerings at the Brahms-Saal of the venerable, more famous Musikverein can be tempting, too… and if and when the Takács Quartet calls whence, the resident-ionarts unit will drop whatever he is doing and head over to hear one of our longest standing favorites. Even in an utterly conservative program such as they presented at the Musikverein on Tuesday, February 10^th: Schubert, Schubert, Beethoven. And the Beethoven “Razumovsky 1” at that… not that there is anything wrong with that. But it’s not the modern Beethoven à la op.135 which might have been the

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Takács Plays Bartók, Part 2

Bartók, String Quartets, Takács Quartet (2d ed., 1998) Bartók, String Quartets, Takács Quartet (1st ed., 1985) [Scores]

The Takács Quartet was back in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater last night for the second part of its complete Bartók cycle (see my review of Part 1). The trajectory was much the same in the even-numbered string quartets, as we heard the composer experiment with modernist techniques and incorporate folk music (or folk sensibilities, as he might have put it) to arrive at an often dissonant style that retains many traditional qualities.

Bartók composed the second quartet from 1915 to 1917, when he lived in the suburbs of Budapest, of which period scholar János Kárpáti says that "the general worries of the war-torn world made his life difficult." It overlapped with the composition of another major work of that time, The Wooden Prince, with which it shares many experimental qualities. As we have heard from the Takács before in this piece (at the Corcoran in 2008 and 2006), the contrapuntal lines were clear throughout, savoring the dissonances of the opening (E-flat in second violin against D in the viola) and hammering them later. The folk-like accelerando and decelerando of the second movement reflected the quartet's collaborations with Muzsikás, an ensemble dedicated to performing Hungarian folk music: a music of fits and starts, half-sung serenades, jokes told and repeated. This set up a stark contrast with the devastating lament of the third movement, the first violin of Edward Dusinberre keening over sighed dissonances.

The fourth quartet, composed in 1928 and 1929, came on the heels of no. 3, set in a palindromic form that became a Bartók hallmark, five movements arranged symmetrically around the central slow movement. As heard when the group performed it last, in 2012, it is a compendium of odd effects -- harmonics, rhythmic ostinati, growls. In particular, the second and fourth movements, based on unusual sounds (muted strings in the former, plucked ones in the latter), dazzled, with magical cat-meow glissandi punctuating the madcap buzzing in the second movement and an almost banjo-like consistency in the pizzicato. The night music of the central slow movement featured gorgeous solos from cello (folksy), viola (almost self-throttling), and violin (like a night bird).

Only the first quartet, heard the first night, and the sixth quartet, composed in 1939, had not been reviewed live in these pages before from the Takács. As the musicians sat down to play no. 6, a feeling of sadness descended over me, as I realized that the cycle had to come to an end. Geraldine Walther, who was once an associate principal in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, gave a plangent reading of the opening viola solo, setting the tone of tragedy that begins each movement and is left hovering in the room at the end of the work. The march of the second movement was weighty and often grotesque, with a folk music-like middle section, while the Burletta of the third movement was likewise worthy of Shostakovich, the improvised accompaniment of a silent film farce. These two concerts confirmed my belief that one will not hear any other group perform Bartók's string quartets better today than the Takács.

Takács Plays Bartók, Part 1

Bartók, String Quartets, Takács Quartet (2d ed., 1998) Bartók, String Quartets, Takács Quartet (1st ed., 1985)

One of the most interesting things that the Fortas Chamber Concerts series, at the Kennedy Center, does is to host a complete cycle of a composer's string quartets (pace Will Robin). The last of these we reviewed was the Shostakovich set performed by the Emerson Quartet in 2007 and 2008. As a followup to the appearance of the Takács Quartet on the series in 2012, which featured a memorable performance of Béla Bartók's fourth quartet, the series has engaged the group to present a complete cycle of the Hungarian composer's string quartets. History has shown that we will endure pretty much anything to hear the Takács Quartet play, so a little snow was not about to keep me home for the first of the two concerts, heard last night in the Terrace Theater.

In one sense, the scores of the Bartók string quartets trace one composer's absorption of the musical trends of the first half of the 20th century -- something that composer George Perle, an acute analyst, noted almost fifty years ago. The Takács's division of the six quartets, all of the odd-numbered quartets the first evening and the evens the second, makes it possible to hear that trajectory twice. Beginning with the first quartet, the only one composed before World War I, they gave Bartók's exploration of more Romantic tonal harmony a heated rendition. Bartók began the piece just after his obsession with the young violinist Steffi Geyer had come to its end: scholar János Kárpáti puts the dates of composition, from sketches to publication, at 1907 to 1909. Kárpáti describes an annotation the composer made in the score of the firts violin concerto around the same time -- a date in 1907 and the word Jászberény, which Geyer has interpreted as a reference to the time that Bartók likely fell in love with her, when she and her brother invited the composer as a guest in their relatives' house in that city. The broken seventh chord that begins the first quartet's first movement is a variation of the so-called "Steffi Geyer-motif," leading Kárpáti to describe the movement as "the concentrate of the Violin Concerto." The two pieces are the closest, in Kárpáti's estimation, that Bartók came to a close imitation of the longing love-death style of harmony and melodic writing he admired in Wagner. These are the qualities that the Takács Quartet brought out so admirably, each instrument's line sounding so beautiful on its own and integrated into the whole.

Other Reviews: Zachary Woolfe, Taking On a Master and His Many Complexities (New York Times, January 22) George Grella, Compelling and mysterious, the inner Bartók is explored by the Takács Quartet (New York Classical Review, January 19)

Already by the end of the first quartet, Bartók seems to have rejected the post-Wagnerian style and begun to experiment with harsher sounds. He entered his third quartet, composed in 1927, in the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society competition, and it won. Last heard from the Takács at the Corcoran in 2004, it shows the composer playing with every possible kind of hard-edged sound and the musicians of the Takács wrung all the energy from it that they could. Their Bartók is so pleasing, though, because they find beauty and balance even in the oddest sounds: beautifully tuned clusters, sighing pizzicato glissandi (a specialty of cellist András Fejér), clacking bow bounces and other percussive effects. Bartók showed a way forward for modern composition in his last two quartets, represented here by no. 5 (last heard from the Takács at the Corcoran in 2008, when we called for them to perform the complete quartets of Bartók here in Washington). Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who had a great ear for talent, commissioned this quartet, ensuring that its world premiere would be right here in Washington, at the Library of Congress in 1935. Post-Romantic retrogression was not the way, but neither was the total abandonment of tonality, for the latter was difficult to reconcile with the folk music that he had spent so much time studying and preserving. If pressed, I would choose the fifth quartet as my favorite of the cycle, and the Takács gets all of the gestures and sounds compressed into its five-movement arch, symmetries within symmetries: the singing of frogs and buzz of insects, the folk dance rhythms, the send-up of a Viennese serenade, here played not too beautifully, with a sense of the grotesque.

The cycle concludes tonight, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, and tickets still remain.

Takács and Hamelin

R. Schumann, String Quartet (op. 41/3) / Piano Quintet, Takács Quartet, M.-A. Hamelin (2009) Schubert, String Quartets 13/14, Takács Quartet (2006)

Take the Takács Quartet, one of our favorite string quartets, and Marc-André Hamelin, one of our favorite pianists, and put them together on one free concert at the Library of Congress, and you have our full attention. The concert by that combination on Tuesday night was an easy choice for our top picks of this month, and nothing could have kept us from hearing it. Except maybe the long security lines at the entrance to the Jefferson Building, which nearly did.

The program played to all of this venerable quartet's strengths, beginning with the simmering, moody themes of Schubert's A minor quartet (D. 804), named for Schubert's incidental music for the play Rosamunde, a theme from which appears in the quartet's second movement. In the first three movements, this performance rose little above a hush, with the pure, sweet tone of first violinist Edward Dusinberre leading the blossoming of minor into major and back. The second movement had the feel of a wordless melody hummed to oneself while on a stroll, a glowing, rosy set of variations, but the third movement stood out for its folk-inflected introduction to a delicate dance, forlorn and lonely even in its trio set in major. The fourth movement, the only moment of sunny exuberance, had all of its staccato chords in unity, with little Haydnesque jokes at the theme's return.

Britten's three string quartets, masterful 20th-century examples of the genre that make one wish he had composed more of them, are not yet in the Takács's discography. Dusinberre gave an insightful introduction to the first quartet (D major, op. 25). Composed in 1940, when Britten was living in the United States, the work was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, for whom the Library's acoustically gorgeous auditorium is named. Its opening is one of the stranger moments in the repertoire, with the three higher instruments hanging in the clouds on long, high notes over distracted pizzicati in the cello. The first movement's animated fast section rumbled away, turning heavenward again to dissolve into those numinous, floating structures of the opening. The second movement, a heavy-footed dance, was interrupted by garrulous growls from the four instruments in grouchy conversation. The third movement, described by Dusinberre as one of Britten's evocations of the seascape of his home country in East Anglia, was marked by the group's impeccable intonation and balance, caressing the dissonances that dissolve into consonance. The fourth movement was an athletic romp, with impish upward flourishes that powered the piece to an ecstatic ending. When the group records the Britten quartets, it should be memorable.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Classical music review: The Takacs Quartet (Washington Post, November 15)

The evening reached its apogee with Shostakovich's piano quintet (op. 57), one of the most eloquent pieces written for that combination of instruments. It dates from the same year as Britten's first quartet, 1940, and rumbles with many of the same tensions but is more tragic in character where Britten was elegiac. Hamelin brought to the keyboard part both reticence, with the piano often trying to fit into the texture in minimal ways (trying to sneak in like a string instrument in the mournful fugue of the second movement), and overwhelming power, biting in tone as the engine that drives the cynical dance of the scherzo. Shostakovich wrote the piano part for himself (he claimed in a letter that it was easy), to play with the Beethoven Quartet, who requested the piece, and it met with delirious critical acclaim in the Soviet Union. The fourth-movement lament was led by the soulful first violin -- the final part of Dusinberre's first-rate performance -- joined in perfect tandem by Geraldine Walther's viola. Seeming to put on a false happy face, the music takes an odd turn in the neoclassical intermezzo, aping a zippy Baroque serenade at times, followed by a quasi-Mozartean sonata-form conclusion. Although the piece won Shostakovich a Stalin Prize, it was not without its detractors, as documented by biographer Laurel Fay. A functionary named Moisey Grinberg penned a critique that labeled the work "a composition of profoundly Western orientation" and "music that does not connect with the life of the people." Fortunately for Shostakovich, Grinberg's was a minority opinion. Sofia Moshevich relates Shostakovich's remarks after the premiere, as recalled by writer Marietta Shagynian: "I have been wandering the streets of Moscow, my soul filled with bliss."

The next chamber music concert at the Library of Congress will feature the Apollon Musagète Quartet this Friday (November 16, 8 pm), playing music by Haydn, Szymanowski, Suk, and Mendelssohn.

Roger Tapping Joins the Juilliard Quartet

In the world of string quartets, this is big news: Roger Tapping, much beloved at ionarts for his musicianship—as part of the Takács Quartet (where he played viola for a decade and shaped the group's extraordinarily successful 'Decca - period') and as an add-on violist to many young quartets (which stopped by the Corcoran Gallery when it still had the best chamber music series in town), the Auryn Quartett, the Klavier Trio Amsterdam—will be the new violist of the Juilliard Quartet.

Currently a faculty member at New England Conservatory, Tapping will also join the Juilliard’s viola faculty beginning with the fall 2013 semester. As violist of the Juilliard he succeeds Samuel Rhodes, who has been a member of the Juilliard  Quartet since 1969 and is the most senior member of the group. Rhodes will continue to teach and remain the Chairman of the Viola Department at Juilliard.

His fellow members of the quartet are, in order of Juilliard senority, Joel Krosnick (cello, since 1974), Ronald Copes (second violin, since 1997), and Joseph Lin (first violin, since 2011).

Takács Quartet

Charles T. Downey, Takács Quartet at the Kennedy Center
Washington Post, March 12, 2012

Beethoven, Late String Quartets, Takács Quartet Bartók, String Quartets, Takács Quartet

The regular visits of the Takacs Quartet used to be one of the highlights of Washington’s cultural life, because the group played in a venue with some of the best acoustics for chamber music in the city, the auditorium at the Corcoran Museum of Art. The quartet was last there in 2008, and the Corcoran has since downsized its chamber music concert series into nonexistence, made official this season. In the past couple of years, the Takacs Quartet has tried out other venues in the area, never quite finding such a good match for its sound. Until Tuesday night, that is, when the group made its long-overdue debut on the Fortas Chamber Music series in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Being part of the “Music of Budapest, Prague and Vienna” festival at the Kennedy Center gave the esteemed quartet the excuse to play one of the Bartok string quartets, as if it needed one. There is no group, live or on disc, I would rather hear in these densely constructed, challenging, but rewarding pieces. The players attacked the Fourth Quartet with a bite in the tone but never overbearing harshness. [Continue reading]

Takács Quartet
Fortas Chamber Music Series
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

Schubert, Quartettsatz (as recorded by the Brandis Quartet)

Bartók, String Quartet No. 4 (as recorded by the Keller Quartet, with video-cued score for study, an invaluable resource)

Beethoven, op. 131 (as recorded by the Takács Quartet)
This quartet famously opens with a fugue, sort of as an extended slow introduction to the second movement, which is a telescoped sonata form. Joseph Kerman speculates that the fugue, which explores all of six key areas Beethoven uses in the following movements, contains the kernel of all that follows: "Everything has been encompassed -- every tonality, every thematic implication, every harmonic nuance -- yet an infinity is kept in reserve. The sense of grip at the end of the Fugue seems to me dominant. This is a piece effortlessly in control of itself and effortlessly in control of its limited universe of tonal materials."

PREVIOUSLY:
Previous reviews (obsessive coverage) of the Takács Quartet at Ionarts

Takács Quartet at Clarice Smith Center

The Takács Quartet's Saturday evening performance of music by Janáček, Britten, and Ravel was mixed. The second half of the program was given over to Ravel's Quartet in F, executed with a polished refinement and gentle flexibility within larger thoughts. The second movement (Assez vif-très rythmé), a pizzicato jam, was simultaneously vigorous and warm. The intimate Gildenhorn Recital Hall in the Clarice Smith Center at the University of Maryland is an ideal setting for chamber music. When the Takács were at their best, one seemingly experienced sound from all directions.

Janáček's programmatic String Quartet No. 1 ("Kreutzer Sonata") opened the program. The first violinist addressed the audience, speaking about the lovely slow theme taken from Beethoven that Janáček modifies and uses rhetorically in the third movement, to contrast the brooding scuffle representing the murderous husband of the story. The concise work, four movements all marked with some tempo variation of "Con moto," turns on a dime from one emotion to another. A sense of innocently confused questioning is evoked in the second movement, which could represent the conflicted wife in Tolstoy's novella.

Other Reviews: Ivan Hewitt, Takács Quartet, Queen Elizabeth Hall, review (The Telegraph, October 20) Andrew Clements, Takács Quartet – review (The Guardian, October 19)

Britten's String Quartet No. 1 in D was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and then composed and premiered in the United States in 1941, when the composer was in his late twenties. Although composed during the war -- when Britten's pacifism caused him some trouble at home -- Edward Dusinberre, the first violinist of the Takács Quartet, generously described it as "a youthful, exuberant work." The Quartet's uneven performance did a disservice to an already flighty piece. One section of the playful final movement features the cellist jamming under a unison line by the upper three musicians; however, their unison sound was tense and not unified. Furthermore, the first movement contains extended sections of ultra-high notes played by the violins and viola over cello pizzicato. These slow, shrill clusters were painful to hear, with the three unblended upper strings vibrating at different speeds and the viola sounding in a range that was less than flattering. To quote the late theorist and pianist Ed Aldwell, "sawdust." With this in mind, perhaps the Takács's "youthful, exuberant" context to this conflicted work with its longingly homesick third movement is too simple, particularly for a composer who would go on to write the War Requiem twenty years later. Both depth and exuberance were missing from this performance of the Britten.

Hear the Takács Quartet at the Théâtre de la Ville, playing Ravel, Bartók, Dvořák, and Haydn. Click on the icon of the headphones to start the streaming audio. [France Musique]

Takács Quartet and Friends

Schumann, Piano Quintet, Takács Quartet, Marc-André Hamelin (released on November 10, 2009) Hyperion CDA67631 | 56'33" Beethoven, Middle Period String Quartets, Takács Quartet Online scores: Haydn, op. 71/2 | Beethoven, op. 59/3 Schumann, Piano Quintet (op. 44)

The Ionarts obsession with the recordings and (perhaps even more) live concerts of the Takács Quartet is pronounced enough that the ensemble has its own Ionarts label. We followed them anxiously through the retirement of violist Roger Tapping, who has been succeeded quite admirably by Geraldine Walther, and we arrived in the Music Center at Strathmore with some concern about the prognosis for founding second violinist Károly Schranz. He recently underwent rotator cuff surgery but is reportedly recovering well and by this September plans to resume performing with the quartet he helped found in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. For this spring's concerts, Lina Bahn, whom we have admired many times both with the Corigliano Quartet and elsewhere, sat in for him, a daunting task but one of which she was quite capable.

The opening Haydn, op. 71/2, was delivered with a bright, elegant first movement, the first theme's octave motif leaping off the page and rocketing crisply around the ring of instruments. First violinist Edward Dusinberre had an impeccably clear tone in the soaring lines and florid solo decoration of the slow movement, over a glowing ember kind of sound from the other instruments. Bahn seemed a little unsure at a couple points in the fourth movement, a sweet little dance, which added to the impression of the performance as beautiful but not exceptional. In any case, the following Beethoven, the third of the Rasumovsky quartets (op. 59/3), is more of a Takács specialty. It opened with a series of almost disembodied chords, glistening reflections, followed by another virtuosic display by the first violin, best in its sort-of cadenza, set in a dream-like stasis.

The second movement was the most memorable, a gloomy serenade that floated above the pizzicato cello. The tempo here was just right, allowed the pulse to rock back and forth, never feeling rushed. The quartet wisely did not try to force the sound, in a vain attempt to fill the hall, requiring the listener to come to them, leaning close as if to see the varnished smoothness of an exquisite artwork's surface. The other excellent part of this performance was a dazzlingly fast performance of the fourth movement, its fugal opening another test for Bahn, as the subject, a cascade of fast notes, is handed first to the viola and second violin. It was certainly fine Beethoven, if not quite that inexplicably breath-taking Takács Beethoven. This fall, presumably with their regular second violinist, the Takács Quartet undertakes a collaborative project with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival called Quartet, a play by David Lawrence Morse about Beethoven's late quartets, for which the ensemble will play one of those late quartets, op. 132.

Other Reviews: Joe Banno, Takacs retains richness, even with pinch-hitter (Washington Post, April 19)

One might wonder why Washington Performing Arts Society decided to present this concert at Strathmore, a venue too large for this kind of chamber music -- in terms of both the acoustic (especially for the two quartets on the first half, where the sound seemed to rattle around in the large space) and the vast number of seats to fill. For the second half, with a Steinway concert grand behind them, the ensemble seemed to come to life, everyone seeming more comfortable with pianist Joyce Yang: the sound issue from the first half was instantly resolved. Yang, it turns out, is an excellent chamber musician, keeping herself in the background until her moments to bring out a bass line or the principal melody in this performance of one of the most perfect works of chamber music, Schumann's piano quintet (E♭ major, op. 44), featured on the quartet's most recent recording (with Marc-André Hamelin). Its second movement, so tragic in an understated way, was played here as a quiet, rueful funeral march, followed by a breathless third movement, where Yang gave a thrilling touch to the many détaché runs of notes and chords. This was a stupendous performance of a gorgeous piece of music.

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WPAS has followed its usual formula in planning its 2010-2011 season, returning to many of its usual favorites. While this generally means few surprises, it also guarantees that many of their concerts are not to be missed. Things are no different next season, which features the following highlights, which can be gleaned, with some effort, from an extremely complicated interactive brochure: Yo-Yo Ma in a program that is a little pops or gala concert in tone (October 21), Anne-Sophie Mutter with Lambert Orkis playing all the Brahms violin sonatas (November 13), Renée Fleming in a recital of something or other (January 8), Evgeny Kissin in what promises to be a knockout all-Liszt program (March 5), and Maurizio Pollini playing the last three Beethoven sonatas (March 30). It will also have visiting orchestras, including the Mariinsky with Gergiev in Mahler's 8th symphony (October 19), the Dresden Staatskapelle with Daniel Harding (November 3), the Boston Symphony Orchestra with James Levine (or, quite possibly, someone else -- March 19), and the Philadelphia Orchestra with Charles Dutoit (May 20). Of greatest interest if slightly less star wattage are appearances by Joyce DiDonato (February 15), András Schiff in an all-Schumann program (October 20), Marc-André Hamelin (April 29), Kapell Competition winner Sofya Gulyak (January 22), Till Fellner (January 29), and a devilish program from an Ionarts favorite, Pierre-Laurent Aimard (May 5). See the rest for yourself.

The Takács Quartet at the Corcoran

Our thanks to guest critic Robert R. Reilly for contributing another review, this time from nearer to home: the Corcoran Gallery.

B.Bartók, String Quartets 1-6, Takács Quartet Decca

Few things can be as pleasant on a late afternoon in the fall than to sit in the intimate neo-classical Hammer auditorium in The Corcoran Gallery of Art and listen to a world-class string quartet playing Haydn. Such was the treat on Sunday afternoon when the Takács Quartet began their program with Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2.

The dog-eared score visible on the first violinist’s stand bespoke a great familiarity with this work. The deep comfort level allowed for a delicious sense of play within the quartet, and the enjoyment of the Takács members was evident in the joy with which they played it. The middle movements were conveyed with especially great warmth. In fact, an autumnal glow permeated the whole piece. However, the Takács could be rollicking and rousing when called for in the Presto movements, and meltingly lovely in turn. They darted about each other in the Finale: Presto like musical starlings. I know this quartet only from recordings, and I did not know it was as good as this until I heard the Takács perform it.

The program included classical, romantic and modern works, but not in that order. The Bartók Quartet No. 2 was sandwiched between the Haydn and the Schumann Quartet in A minor, Op. 41, No. 1. The Takács Decca recordings of the Bartók Quartets are famous and highly revered. After they were made, Geraldine Walther replaced Roger Tapping as violist. In the three years since then, she has obviously gelled with her confreres. Karoly Schranz, violin, and Andras Fejer, cello, have been with Takács from the beginning; they have now played together for some 33 years. The superb first violin, Edward Dusinberre, joined in 1993.

I confess that, while musical friends whom I respect love the Bartók Quartets dearly, I have not yet reached that level of affection or understanding. Nonetheless, it was clear to me that, in the first movement of the Second, the Takács took it very much as a romantic work, though from a world in which something had clearly gone wrong. That much was certain from the disorientation of the uncertain tonality and the brooding sadness. The slashing attacks in the second movement were riveting in their ferocity. This was tremendously exciting playing with hair-trigger precision. It is hard to think that the Lento movement could be played more expressively.

The Schumann Quartet was a joy, from the keening loveliness of the opening theme, through the wonderfully skittish, Mendelssohnian scherzo to a finale with a marvelously hushed, magically delicate coda, rounding off into an energetic climax. Watching and listening to the Takács instruments ricocheting off one another in the fugal tumble of wonderful melody was a treat.

Life After Takács – Roger Tapping’s Washington Recital

Roger Tapping is a known quantity among chamber music aficionados in Washington – especially those who have followed the Takács Quartet’s performances when he was on violist-duty for that formidable group. Since leaving the Takács Quartet in 2005 to spend more time with his family, Roger Tapping has continuously shown up in performances with (often very young) quartets at the Corcoran Gallery and Bethesda Music Society where he performed all of Mozart’s String Quintets with the Jupiter, Parker, Daedalus, and Auryn Quartets. Last January he joined the Klavier Trio Amsterdam for the Fauré Piano Quartet.

Beethoven, String Quartets op.18, Takács Quartet Decca UK | DE | FR Beethoven, String Quartets opp.59, 74, Takács Quartet Decca UK | DE | FR Beethoven, The Late String Quartets, Takács Quartet Decca UK | DE | FR Bartók, The String Quartets, Takács Quartet (II) Decca UK | DE | FR Korngold / Schoenberg, Sextet / Verklärte Nacht, Raphael Ensemble Hyperion UK | DE | FR Dvořák, Quintet, Sextet, Raphael Ensemble Hyperion UK | DE | FR

Retiring from playing in a professional chamber group must be tantamount to enjoying a new life. Instead of being on tour four, five weeks at a time, Tapping – who had previously served in the Raphael Ensemble and the Allegri Quartet – is now away from home for only a few days at a time. This not only means that Tapping can enjoy family life and focus more on teaching at the New England Conservatory but also that he can observe other string quartets he performs with from a detached point of view. Being one step removed, the intricacies of quartet–life become “sociologically interesting”: to see how four young players approach musical problems or react to new music; to observe how veteran groups resolve their differences in as many different – and the same – ways as, for example, married couples might approach theirs.

Though the occasional, wistful pangs of nostalgia for the Takács days still occur, Tapping – who recently spoke to me about his current activities and plans – seems to quite enjoy his newfound peace and the ability to moonlight with great chamber groups, both young and established. For example the Pražák Quartet which Tapping attested to feeling immediately comfortable with – perhaps because their wonderful balance of vigor and warmth is, at least to my ears, related to the playing of the Takács.

For the future we can expect lots of Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven Quintets with Tapping and a host of fine string quartets but also the Beethoven String Trios, the type of chamber music formation that Tapping generally considers the ‘scariest’ to play because they offer no place to hide. Beethoven’s op.9, specifically, he described as particularly honest, unsentimental exponents thereof – in short: “The real thing”. (In so elucidating these works – works that I have hitherto not responded to with much enthusiasm – Tapping makes me want to seek out the Leopold Trio’s recordings that he recommends.)

Roger Tapping also plans on doing more viola recitals – such as will take place this Friday, the 29^th at La Maison Française (7.30PM) where Tapping and pianist Judith Gordon will present a diverse program of Bach (a Gamba Sonata) , Fauré (Après un rêve), Hindemith (Sonata for solo iola), Schumann (Adagio & Allegro op.70), and Shostakovich (Sonata op.147). These recitals (and concerts) are an aspect of a non-chamber violist’s life he finds most pleasing, not the least because getting to play the melody for more than just two bars at a time is a completely new experience.

After talking about his present and future plans, I could not help harking back once more on his time in previous chamber groups. With the Raphael Ensemble from 1983 until 1990 he played alongside composer/performer Sally Beamish and participated in highly regarded recordings on Hyperion, including the Brahms, Dvořák, and KorngoldSextets. With the Allegri Quartet he got to play next to the Pablo Casals student Bruno Schrecker who Tapping recalls fondly as the best bass line player he’d met. With this longest continually performing of British string quartets he played from 1990 until 1995 when, seeking a clean break in his private life, he auditioned for the Takács Quartet who needed to fill the violist’s seat after Gábor Omai had passed away.

He joined Károly Schranz, András Fejér, and Edward Dusinberre (who had himself just become a Takácsi 18 months before Tapping’s arrival), and contributed what was doubtlessly a golden age for the quartet, culminating in CD surveys of the complete Bartók and Beethoven quartets. They are widely considered first choices among modern digital recordings of either. Tapping mentions both when asked about his favorite recordings from that time. When he recently put on the Beethoven (which he had not listened to for a while, in part to avoid overt nostalgia) to see how his group had solved certain problems back then, he found himself “pleasantly surprised” how, despite the continuous development and evolution of how the Quartet approached these works, very nicely the Beethoven still held up. When pressed to chose between them, though, he points to the Bartók as their proudest achievement. (I’m not surprised: I fell in love with that recording nearly four years ago and that love has never ceased.)

The finest way to enjoy Mr. Tapping’s art, short of attending his recitals and concerts in the region, is through his recordings with the Takács Quartet and Raphael Ensemble. On the right I have listed some of my favorites in which he participates – none of which I would want to be without.

The recital at La Maison Française will be recorded by WETA and broadcast later in the year.

Takács Quartet @ Corcoran

The second installment of the Washington concert appearances by Ionarts favorite the Takács Quartet, following a beautiful concert at Wolf Trap last October, was at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on Friday night. It was a closely matched program (the same one they played at Carnegie Hall the night before), intended really to be Part 2 to the Wolf Trap concert, but offered as a benefit concert on behalf of the Corcoran's Musical Evening Series.

The group opened with a Haydn quartet (op. 74, no. 2), following up on op. 74, no. 1, at Wolf Trap. Their Haydn this time was jolly, reflected in the sunny, sharp tone of Edward Dusinberre's first violin. The group set the tempo of the first movement (Vivace) one notch too fast, catching the viola a little unawares, at its solo moment transitioning to the second theme (an issue resolved in the repeat of the exposition). The second movement, a graceful theme with variations set at just the right pace, featured lovely, pensive solo playing from the two remaining Hungarian founding members of the quartet, cellist András Fejér and second violinist Károly Schranz. The third and fourth movements returned to the light-hearted mood, with a cheery menuetto and a finale in the spirit of a country reel.

Takács Quartet: Haydn (op. 76) Bartók Brahms, op. 51

In the modern slot (instead of Janáček's second quartet at Wolf Trap), it was Béla Bartók's fifth quartet. The 20th century was dominated by three great sets of string quartets -- six by Bartók (1909-1939), fifteen by Shostakovich (1938-1974), and five (so far) by Elliott Carter (1951-1995). Hopefully, the Takács will one day give a complete performance of Bartók's cycle of six string quartets here in Washington, as their interpretations of his quartets, live and in recording, remain the most illuminating. Yes, we have heard them play no. 2 and no. 3 in recent years at the Corcoran, but not enough to justify you calling us greedy for wanting more.

In no. 5 once again, it was the quartet's unity that impressed as it rocketed through the vast palette of colors -- folk songs hummed in the night, a perverse tango, barbaric yapping, machine-gun unisons, in the first movement alone. Forms crystallized beautifully, like the chiasmic return of the pure and sad folk recitative in the first violin that opens and closes the second movement. The lopsided Bulgarian dance of the third movement contrasted with the insect and frog calls growing to an angry buzz in the fourth. The fifth movement, opening starkly and driving furiously to its end, capped an extraordinary performance.

Other Reviews: Tom Huizenga, Takács Quartet (Washington Post, February 25) Dean Bevan, Takács Quartet’s communication leads to sensitive performance (Lawrence (Kans.) Journal-World, February 19)

Washington is enjoying a surfeit of the Brahms quartets this season, driving Anne Midgette at the Post to distraction, with a complete cycle from the Emerson Quartet and now an almost-complete one from the Takács. After op. 51, no. 1, at Wolf Trap it was time for op. 51, no. 2, with similar results. The first movement opened at a restrained tempo but seemed overall flexible, the push and pull creating a sense of introspection, which continued into the ardent, sustained second movement. Having heard this performance side by side with the Emerson Quartet last month, I think that the Emerson owns the third movement, with a cool, gloomy minuetto, while the Takács' rendition was a little scattered, especially the trio, which was at the edge of control. However, the Takács gave a much more satisfyingly gutsy performance of the fourth movement, holding back the tempo slightly (it is marked Allegro non assai) and digging into the score with weight. "After that light program," as Edward Dusinberre put it, it was time for a little Shostakovich encore, the delightfully acidic Polka from The Golden Age, no less welcome because it had also been the encore at Wolf Trap in October.

The closest that the Takács Quartet's third program -- with Haydn's op. 74, no. 3, and the third Brahms quartet -- will get to Washington is the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society (April 28, 8 pm), which also includes the Franck Piano Quintet with Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Road trip, anyone? The next, equally anticipated concert at the Corcoran features the Jupiter Quartet (March 28, 8 pm).