{"id":16078,"date":"2013-11-19T08:45:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T13:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=16078"},"modified":"2013-11-19T09:16:25","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T14:16:25","slug":"daily-album-review-17-takacs-quartet-distils-essence-of-benjamin-brittens-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/11\/19\/daily-album-review-17-takacs-quartet-distils-essence-of-benjamin-brittens-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily album review 17: Tak\u00e1cs Quartet distils darkest essence of Benjamin Britten&#8217;s music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/takacs.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-16081\" alt=\"takacs\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/takacs.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/takacs.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/takacs-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>The remarkable Tak\u00e1cs Quartet has brought its laser-sharp focus to bear on a searing recording of Benjamin Britten&#8217;s three official string quartets for the Hyperion label.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>From the ghostly opening section of the <em>String Quartet No. 1<\/em> to the plodding Passacaglia at the end of <em>String Quartet No. 3<\/em>, violinists Edward Dusinberre and K\u00e1roly Schrantz, violist Geraldine Walther and cellist Adr\u00e1s Fej\u00e9r slice right to the essence of this music, which is a pointed need to convey an unsettled psyche in sound.<\/p>\n<p>None of this can be called easy listening &#8212; but it is very rewarding listening if given a chance. And it&#8217;s difficult to imagine the music being played better than by the Tak\u00e1cs Quartet. They find the delicate balance between being pointed and cutting too sharply, between conveying a message and cudgeling the listener, and between a delicate intimacy and losing the thread of the musical narrative. Their balance and control are remarkable.<\/p>\n<p>Britten&#8217;s quartets are split between the 1940s &#8212; <em>No. 1<\/em> dates from his American exile, in 1941, while <em>No. 2<\/em> was written right after the smashing premiere of <em>Peter Grimes<\/em> &#8212; and the end of his life. The composer finished <em>String Quartet No. 3<\/em> a year before he died &#8212; and did not live to hear its premiere by the Amadeus Quartet in December, 1976.<\/p>\n<p>The string quartet is small enough to insist on intimacy, yet versatile enough to allow a composer wide latitude in creating different sounds and textures. In Britten&#8217;s case, his three string quartets serve as an absolute-music microcosm of of the deep, dark psychological journeys we encounter in his operas.<\/p>\n<p><em>String Quartet No. 3<\/em> even contains direct musical quotations from <em>Death in Venice<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The darker side of human nature rendered by 16 strings plucked and bowed with extreme focus and intention is as powerful as a night at the opera when performed with the force of the Tak\u00e1cs Quartet.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll find all the details and audio samples <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hyperion-records.co.uk\/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68004&amp;vw=dc\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The remarkable Tak\u00e1cs Quartet has brought its laser-sharp focus to bear on a searing recording of Benjamin Britten&#8217;s three official string quartets for the Hyperion label.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,10,77,36,51,52,57],"tags":[6451,206,497,1589,6471,3157,3231],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/11\/takacs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-4bk","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16078"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16084,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16078\/revisions\/16084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16078"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}