Takacs Quartet Plays The Jorgensen 2/17

The members of the world-renowned Takács Quartet are often described as four distinct musical personalities. Their real personalities aren't bad either, engaging audiences around the world with the great string quartets.

Jorgensen will host the Grammy-winning ensemble as they play a program of Haydn, Bartók and Schubert on Thursday, February 17, at 7:30 p.m. Michael Lankester, former music director of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, will provide additional insight about the composers and their music at the free 30-minute Concert Talk at 6:45 p.m.

Gramophone magazine says this quartet's playing makes "you believe that there's no other possible way the music should go." As for those personalities, Emma Promfret of the London Times offered this quick who's who: "There's the serious one, Edward Dusinberre, first violin, who leads the music and the conversation. The joker: Károly Schranz, second violin, and the pithy one: András Fejér, cello. ... Finally, there's the gushy one, Geraldine Walther, viola."

Schranz and Fejér are the remaining founding members, who formed the group in 1975 with two other Hungarian classmates while they were students at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. Dusinberre is an English-born Royal College of Music and Juilliard-trained musician who often writes about music. Walther, from Florida, studied at the Manhattan School of Music and served as principal violinist of the San Francisco Symphony for 29 years.

Comfortable in a university setting, the Takács Quartet is based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, which honored them with the 2010 Faculty Excellence Awards. They perform 90 concerts a year, having appeared in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.

The 2010-2011 Season includes a Bartók Cycle in Sydney, and a three-concert series focusing on Schubert in New York City (92nd Street Y), and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The series will feature the New York premiere of a new work by Daniel Kellogg, based on the slow movement theme of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" Quartet.

Takács has made numerous award-winning recordings on the Decca and Hyperion labels, including the complete Beethoven cycle and, coming this November, the Haydn "Apponyi" Quartets, Op. 71 and 74. Takács performed in 2007 with Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Everyman" at Carnegie Hall. The group often collaborates with the Hungarian folk ensemble, Muzsikas, and toured in the U.S. with the poet Robert Pinsky.

At Jorgensen Takács (pronounced TAW-kawsh) will play Haydn's Quartet in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2, Bartók's Quartet No. 3 in C-Sharp Major, and Schubert's Quartet in G Major, D 887. The concert is sponsored by the Alexander-Hewitt Fund.

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Regular tickets are $28 and $30, with some discounts available. For tickets and information, call the Box Office at 860.486.4226, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., or order online at jorgensen.uconn.edu. Convenient free parking is available across the street in the North Garage.

 

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