Takács Quartet
Edward Dusinberre, Violin
Károly Schranz, Violin
Geraldine Walther, Viola
András Fejér, Cello
Recognized as one of the world’s great ensembles, the Takács Quartet plays with a unique blend of drama, warmth, and humor, combining four distinct musical personalities to bring fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire.
Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet performs 90 concerts a year worldwide. The 2009–2010 season includes cycles of the complete Beethoven quartets in London and in Madrid. The quartet will play a series of two Beethoven concerts in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and give their first concert in St. Petersburg. The Takács Quartet’s series of three concerts in Zankel Hall feature the Schumann quartets and works that were composed last year for the Takács by Wolfgang Rihm, James Macmillan, and John Psathas. The quartet will perform over 40 concerts in North America and open the season of the San Diego Symphony with performances of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, and Handel-Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra.
The quartet’s award-winning recordings include the complete Beethoven cycle on the Decca label. In 2005, the late Beethoven quartets won Disc of the Year from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award, and two additional awards from the Japanese Recording Academy.
In 2006, the Takács Quartet made its first recording for Hyperion Records—Schubert’s D. 804 and D. 810. A disc that featured Brahms’s Piano Quintet with Stephen Hough was released to great acclaim in November 2007 and was subsequently nominated for a Grammy. A recording of Brahms’s Op. 51 and Op. 67 quartets was released in the fall of 2008, and a disc that featured the Schumann Piano Quintet with Marc-André Hamelin is scheduled to be released later this year.
The quartet is known for its innovative programming. In 2007, it performed Everyman with Academy Award–winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in Carnegie Hall, inspired by the Philip Roth novel. The group collaborates regularly with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikás, performing a program that explores the folk sources of Bartók’s music. The Takács performed a music and poetry program on a 14-city US tour with poet Robert Pinsky.
At the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet has helped to develop a string program with a special emphasis on chamber music, where students work in a nurturing environment designed to help them develop their artistry. The quartet’s commitment to teaching is enhanced by summer residencies at the Aspen Festival and at the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara. The Takács is a Visiting Quartet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.
The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gábor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gábor Ormai, and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping in 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced Mr. Tapping in 2005. Of the original ensemble, Károly Schranz and András Fejér remain. In 2001, the Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary.
The Takács Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado in Boulder and are Associate Artists at the South Bank Centre, London.
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