Quartet plays with flawless style

Sounding so good never looked so easy.

Sunday night at Schoenberg Hall, the Takács Quartet
performed the second in an ambitious series of six concerts
dedicated to completing the Beethoven string quartet cycle. The
first took place Saturday night, and the remaining four are
scheduled for the weekends of March 6-7 and April 3-4 of 2004.

Considered one of the world’s premiere string quartets,
the Takács Quartet ““ composed of violinists Edward
Dusinberre and Károly Schranz, violist Roger Tapping and
cellist András Fejér ““ is now entering its 29th
season, but only since the mid ’90s have the current players
been together as an ensemble. Nevertheless, they play with such
unanimous vision and direction that it is hard to believe they
haven’t been playing together for all of those 29 years.

It was clear from the beginning the Takács Quartet would be
satisfied only with a flawless concert. The one-two punch of the
first two movements of Op. 18 No. 1, immediately established the
astonishing chemistry of the quartet, and by the end of the
dramatic second movement, each player had shown he could
individually shine as well as conduct his respective role with
equal aplomb.

First violin Dusinberre rightfully took the role of the virtuoso
of the quartet, complemented by the fierce energy of second violin
Schranz. Both Fejér and Tapping performed with slightly more
reserve, with Tapping playing the straight-man of the four.

The chemistry of the quartet reached aesthetically striking
peaks during its interpretation of the Op. 74 “Harp”
Quartet. The highlight was the dynamic effect of the arpeggiated
pizzicato ““ the plucking of the strings that gives the
quartet its nickname ““ during the first movement, an effect
achieved in part by the seemingly effortless manner of the
performance.

Most awe-inducing, however, was the interpretation of Op. 131.
The Takács breezed through seven movements with neither pause
nor misstep, each move calculated and expressive.

““ Alfred Lee