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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS

Saturday & Sunday, March 22 & 23, 2014 Hertz Hall

Takács Quartet

Edward Dusinberre first Károly Schranz second violin Geraldine Walther András Fejér

THE SIX STRING QUARTETS OF BÉLA BARTÓK

Saturday, March 22, 2014, 8pm

PROGRAM

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) No. 1, Op. 7 (1907–1908) Lento Poco a poco accelerando all’allegretto Introduzione (Allegro) — Allegro vivace

Bartók String Quartet No. 3 (1927) Prima parte (Moderato) — Seconda parte (Allegro) — Ricapitulazione della prima parte (Moderato) — Coda (Allegro molto) Played without pause

INTERMISSION

Bartók String Quartet No. 5 (1934) Allegro Adagio molto Scherzo: Alla bulgarese Andante Finale: Allegro vivace

CAL PERFORMANCES

1 2 PROGRAM

Sunday, March 23, 2014, 3pm

PROGRAM

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) String Quartet No. 2, Op. 17 (1915–1917) Moderato Allegro molto capriccioso Lento

Bartók String Quartet No. 4 (1928) Allegro Prestissimo con sordino Non troppo lento Allegretto pizzicato Allegro molto

INTERMISSION

Bartók String Quartet No. 6 (1939) Mesto — Più mosso, pesante — Vivace Mesto — Marcia Mesto — Burletta: Moderato Mesto

This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Earl and June Cheit.

Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

HEREIS a particular exhilaration that in tradition; enormous in their range of ex- Tcomes with performing the six Bartók pression. They are fundamental documents of string quartets that make up the complete modern music, integral to the study of the dis- cycle. Our performances have been influenced cipline and the subject of many learned tr-ea by working regularly with the Hungarian folk tises. But the true importance of these group Muzsikás, whose sense of adventure and masterpieces lies not in their demonstrable joyful abandon has hopefully crept into our mastery of the craft of composition, not in the performances of these monuments of 20th- fierce intellect that attended their creation, but century quartet literature. in the way they allow us to share the spirit of As with Beethoven cycle programs, we one extraordinary man who affirmed his arrange the order of the quartets to give a life—and ours—by wresting order from sense of Bartók’s musical journey. In the first change and contradiction. program, the late romanticism of the Quartet Change and contradiction came to Bartók No. 1 is rudely shattered by the explosive both as a Hungarian, with the waning of the modernist tendencies of No. 3. To conclude old ways of life that provided the bedrock of the program, No. 5 shows Bartók at the peak the nation’s culture, and as a musician, with of his compositional powers, with its extraor- the erosion of the traditional tonal system dinary spectrum of colors, rhythmic vitality, upon which compositions had been founded and range of emotion. The second program for nearly three centuries. Bartók confronted begins with the Quartet No. 2, which presents both of these potential threats in the quartets melancholy and yearning lyricism in the outer by drawing melodic, rhythmic, and textural movements and a capricious second move- inspiration from the indigenous songs and ment giddy with excitement and momentum. dances that he collected during his decades of We follow this with No. 4, itself a striking field research on the subject, and then forging journey from its rigid, uncompromising first those musical elements into logical forms movement and spectral, nightmarish second molded from new tonal alloys that melded to the humanizing cello solo in the middle convention and innovation. movement. The humorous fourth movement In so doing, he mirrored his own life: by and festive dance finale leave perform ers and showing in the Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (com- audience alike in a completely different place posed when he was 27 and 34, and the only from where we began. two of the quartets bearing opus numbers) Of course, the cycle must end with the Sixth how the folk sources to which he had devoted Quartet, where Bartók achieved an unprece- his early years could affirm his coming of age dented degree of emotional depth—a sense by providing the basis for establishing his dis- of resignation and even withdrawal from tinctive creative voice; by showing in the the world. Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 (ages 46 and 47) how that musical speech could be made to encom- Takács Quartet pass the most rigorous discipline and individ- ualism; and by showing in the Quartets Nos. 5 * * * and 6 (ages 53 and 58) how the experience of life (and art) could both sharpen and mellow The string quartets of Béla Bartók are monu- the personality to reflect the wisdom of ma- ments of music, virtually unsurpassed by any turity. Bartók’s six string quartets transcend body of work of any other composer: unim- the mere notes that are their medium to peachable in their form and technique, with record the unfolding and renewing of a the tiniest motivic atom set spinning elegantly human spirit, a process of creativity and com- through the universe of an all-embracing munication that perfectly embodies the com- structure; ingenious yet masterful in their use poser’s artistic credo: “I cannot conceive of of sonority; daring harmonically yet grounded music that expresses absolutely nothing.”

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES

String Quartet No. >, Op. D in slow on a lamenting theme, whose imitative technique was probably influenced Composed in IQHO–IQHP. Premièred on by the fugue that opens Beethoven’s C-sharp March IQ, IQIH, in by the Waldbauer- minor Quartet, Op. 131. Formal contrast is Kerpely Quartet. provided by the movement’s central section, based on a descending theme in worried The year 1907, when he was 26, was a crucial rhythms (marked “very impassioned”) initi- time both personally and professionally for ated by the viola above a drone in the cello. (As Béla Bartók. In January, he was appointed to a means of unifying the overall structure of the the faculty of the Budapest Academy of Music Quartet, the opening interval of this melody— as teacher of piano, and he soon became rec- a falling half-step—serves as the germ from ognized as one of ’s most talented which the themes of the two later movements keyboard virtuosos and pedagogues. By 1907, grow.) A return of the opening canon, floating he had begun to establish himself as a com- high in the , rounds out the movement’s poser and a folk music researcher, though his form. An inconclusive harmony leads without original works to that time, largely under the pause to the next movement. sway of late German Romanticism, had not The form of the spectral Allegretto is related yet revealed his distinctive creative personal- to Classical sonata-allegro wit h three themes: ity. He was then also much occupied with a falling melody of short phrases introduced thoughts of Hungarian nationalism (he even by the second violin after a hesitant introduc- eschewed business suits for a short period in tion; a flowing waltz-like strain given by the favor of traditional peasant dress), and the inner strings above an ostinato murmur from manner in which the music he was docu- the cello and first violin; and a quiet, subdued menting on his research trips through the motive accompanied by pizzicato notes from Transylvanian countryside could be most ef- the cello. After a tightly woven development fectively incorporated into his original works. section, however, the themes are recapitulated The String Quartet No. 1, Bartók’s first pub- not in their expected order, but in reverse, a lished chamber work and his earliest generally technique that creates a structural symmetry recognized masterpiece, is an important doc- (1–2–3–development–3–2–1) for which ument of that formative time in his life. Bartók showed great fondness in many of his Though certainly touched by elements of pro- later compositions. grammatic autobiography (Ernő Lendvai It is in the finale that Bartók moved beyond found in it “first descent—then ascent. The the extended Romantic style of the earlier entire work possesses a dramatic [progres- movements toward the characteristic compo- sion] because the ‘return to life’ [Zoltán sitional idiom, grown from the distinctive Kodály’s description of the finale] is brought melodic leadings and fiery dance rhythms of about by catharsis, a purifying fever”), the , that informs his greatest Quartet is, above all, a purely musical record works. The movement is introduced by a pre- of the profound evolution of Bartók’s stylistic ludial paragraph in which the cello makes language from its Germanic, Romantic origins bardic pronouncements that are separated by t o its mature basis in the quintessential ele- excited punctuations from the upper strings. ments of Hungarian folk song. Elliott The main part of the movement is a sort of Antokoletz paired it with Strauss’s Elektra, also modern sonata-rondo whose structural de- completed in 1909, as “epitomizing late marcations are often blurred by the continuous Romantic music on the threshold of a new thematic working-out. The movement’s second chromatic idiom.” theme, however, a folkish tune similar to the The first movement is a darkly emotional one on which Kodály based his “Peacock” essay grown from the harmonic richness of Variations of 1939, is placed in high relief by Wagner’s Tristan, and not unrelated to the ripe its slow tempo and Impressionistic trilled ac- of Schoenberg’s 1899 Verklärte companiment. (Bartók was much interested in Nacht . The Quartet begins with a close canon the music of the new French composers during

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES the work’s composition. He purchased a copy music becomes transmuted into modern music of Debussy’s String Quartet in October 1907.) is the following: The composer does not make Though the First String Quartet is among the use of a real peasant melody but invents his own earliest of Bartók’s works to exhibit the stylistic imitation of such melodies.... There is yet a third gestures that were to place him among the great way in which the influence of peasant music can composers of the modern era, it is music of un- be traced in a composer’s work. Neither peas- deniable personality and remarkable artistic vi- ant melodies nor imitations of peasant melodies sion and craftsmanship. can be found in his music, but it is pervaded by the atmosphere of peasant music.” The String Bartók Quartet No. 2 is among the earliest examples String Quartet No. ?, Op. >D of this last method of incorporating folk in- fluences into concert music. The work was Composed in IQIM–IQIO. Premièred on March K, composed in the Budapest suburb of IQIP, in Budapest by the Waldbauer Quartet. Rákoskeresztúr between 1915 and 1917, the war years when Bartók largely withdrew from During the early years of the 20th century, public concert life. Unable to travel to continue Béla Bartók became obsessed with the folk his research in folk music, he spent much of that music of his native Hungary. He and his friend time organizing the mountain of information and colleague in composition Zoltán Kodály on the subject that he had collected during the trooped the hinterlands with, at first, pen and previous decade, and composed little. His only paper, and, later, a primitive phonograph to important original works of that time were the record the indigenous songs and dances that ballet The Wooden Prince and the Second differed substantially from the four-square Quartet, but the Quartet marked a significant melodies that had been passed off for decades advance in his creative language through its as authentic. What they found was music permeation by subtilized folk idioms. “The whose rhythms exhibited an invigorating ir- whole direction of Bartók’s later writing might regularity, whose modes eschewed conformity be deduced from this one work,” wrote Halsey to the commonly accepted scale patterns in Stevens in his biography of the composer. The favor of a dizzying variety of pitch organiza- Second was the first of Bartók’s six quartets to be tions, and whose method of performance al- recorded (in 1925 by the , with lowed for inflections and expressions which Paul Hindemith as violist), and has probably not only enhanced the basic song but also dis- enjoyed more performances than any other played the individuality of the singer. With the composition in the set. dedication of a religious zealot, Bartók spent Kodály said that the three strongly profiled 40 years collecting, transcribing, and codify- movements of the Second Quartet represent: ing Central European and North African folk- “1. A quiet life. 2. Joy. 3. Sorrow.” The sonata songs, always mindful that these ages-old but form of the opening movement is worked out fragile remnants of evolving cultures might with Bartók’s characteristic rigor. The main vanish forever before he could preserve them. theme, given by the first violin, begins with a Bartók’s own music absorbed the impact of his quick leap upward followed by a long note and research, and by the time of the First World a phrase descending through chromatically in- War, the influence of folk idioms on the flected melodic leadings. The other instru- rhythms, melodies, and moods of his works had ments are drawn into the discussion of this become pervasive. “The question is, what are subject, and lead directly to the second theme, the ways in which peasant music is taken over a melody in sm oother motion in which is and becomes transmuted into modern music?” imbedded a little turn figure in triplet rhythm. he asked in a 1920 article. “We may, for instance, The development section is largely occupied take over a peasant melody unchanged or only with tightly reasoned permutations of the slightly varied, write an accompaniment to it principal theme. The recapitulation returns the and possibly some opening and concluding earlier material, though the second theme is phrases.... Another method by which peasant truncated to just a brief reminiscence, with the

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES balance of the movement devoted to a devel- not immune to the spirit of experimentation, opmental coda grown from the main subject. and he shifted his professional concentration The Allegro that occupies the center of the at that time from ethnomusicology to compo- Quartet bears the immediate imprint of folk sition and his career as a pianist. He was par- music: its form is a chain of continuous sec- ticularly interested in the music of Stravinsky, tions arranged as a loose rondo, like a peasant notably the mosaic structures and advanced dance with a returning refrain; its rhythm is harmonies of the Diaghilev ballets, and in the ferocious (the Allegro Barbaro was composed recent Viennese developments in atonality only four years before; the Romanian Dances and motivic generation posited by Arnold of 1915 include a “Stamping Dance”); its Schoenberg and his friend and disciple Alban melodic material is contained within a limited Berg. A decided modernism entered Bartók’s range and circles around a few central pitches; music with his searing 1919 ballet, The its phrasing consists of small repeated units. Miraculous Mandarin, and his works of the The movement ends with an extraordinary years immediately following—the two Violin coda that plays a quiet transformation of the Sonatas, the piano suite , the First main theme at such breakneck pace that the Piano , and the String Quartets music becomes a buzzing murmur. Nos. 3 and 4—are the most daring that he ever The finale is bleak and sorrowful, music of wrote. He was reluctant to program them for intense expression that may re flect the grief of any but the most sophisticated audiences. the time of its composition. Though the move- Bartók wrote the Third Quartet quickly in ment seems to unfold freely, pausing occa- Budapest at the end of the summer of 1927, im- sionally for a thoughtful breath, it is carefully mediately following a concert tour of Germany generated from a small cache of melodic ges- during which he performed his new Piano tures: tiny, two-note motives, given by the sec- Concerto No. 1 with Furtwängler in ond violin, that use the intervals of a third (in and his in Baden-Baden. In its conflicting minor and major versions) and December 1927, Bartók began his first visit to a fourth; a brief arching phrase, posited by the the , concertizing from coast-to- first violin , that recalls the principal theme of coast for three months after making his the first movement; and a falling figure of two American début with the New York short notes followed by a longer note. Philharmonic and Willem Mengelberg in Carnegie Hall on December 22nd in his own String Quartet No. @ Rhapsody for Piano and . (It was one of the ironies of Bartók’s life that both his Composed in IQJO. Premièred on February IQ, last home and the hospital in which he died in IQJQ, in London by the Waldbauer Quartet. 1945 were just across the street from the famed auditorium that hosted his introduc- After the fiendish winds of the First World tion to this country.) Before returning to War had finally blown themselves out in 1918, Hungary in February 1928, Bartók learned of there came into music a new invigoration and a lucrative competition for new chamber works an eagerness by composers to stretch the sponsored by the Musical Fund of , forms and language of the ancient art. and submitted his Third Quartet for consider- Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Prokofiev, ation after he arrived home. He heard nothing Shostakovich, Copland, and other of the most for some time, however, and so sent a copy of important modern masters challenged listen- the Quartet to Universal Edition in , in- ers and colleagues throughout the 1920s with quiring if that firm would be willing to publish their daring visions and their brilliant icono- the score and help promote its first perform- clasms. It was the most exciting decade in the ance. Then on October 2nd, news arrived that entire history of music. Béla Bartók, whose Bartók’s piece and a string quartet by the Italian folksong researches were severely limited ge- composer Alfredo Casella had been chosen by ographical ly by the loss of Hungarian territo- a panel (which included Mengelberg, Fritz ries through the treaties following the war, was Reiner, and Frederick Stock) from over 600

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES entries to share the considerable first prize of augmentation, diminution, and other pro - $6,000. In view of the international recogni- cesses that Bartók learned from Bach. Part II, tion accorded the work, Universal agreed to which follows without pause, is a free, contin- issue the score immediately; the piece was uously unfolding variation of an arch-shaped premièred at London’s Wigmore Hall by the folk-dance melody presented in pizzicato Waldbauer Quartet on February 19, 1929. multiple stops by the cello. A passage of dizzy- Bartók’s Third Quartet is among the great ing slides and almost brutal dissonance masterworks of modern music—brilliant, bridges to Part III, which is a thoroughly re- challenging, cathartic, one of the most diffi- worked version of Part I (Bartók marked this cult yet rewardin g pieces in the entire cham- section “Ricapitulazione della prima parte,” ber literature. Though the music is Bartók’s but also noted, “I do not like to repeat a mu- furthest adventure into modernity, it is sical idea without change”), a distillation of founded solidly on the confluence of two tra- the essence of the Quartet’s earlier material. ditional but seemingly opposed musical The concluding Coda starts as a vague, bow- streams—the folk music of Eastern Europe, a tip buzzing, but soon develops into a furious subject on which Bartók was a scholar of the altered restatement of the folk dance of Part highest accomplishment, and the elaborate II. The Quartet culminates in a powerful, vis- contrapuntal constructions of Sebastian Bach cerally compelling cadence. and other Baroque composers. By 1927, the time of the Third Quartet, Bartók had so thor- String Quartet No. A oughly absorbed the quirky intervals, tightly circling motivic phrases, snapping rhythms, Composed in IQJP. Premièred on March KH, and ornate decorations of indigenous IQJQ, in Budapest by the Waldbauer Quartet. Hungarian music into his original work that his themes constitute of virtual apotheosis of Folk influence pervades the Fourth Quartet, native folksong. “The melodic world of my composed during the summer of 1928, soon string quartets does not essentially differ from after Bartók returned from his first tour of that of folksong,” he said, “only the framework America as pianist and composer. It is evident is stricter.” For the working-out of his folk-de- in the small-interval melodic leadings, gapped rived thematic materials (Bartók never quoted scales, and snapping rhythms of the first move- existing melodies unless specifically noting ment; in the whirling motion and fiery synco- that they were arrangements), he turned to pations of the two scherzos; in the florid, the highly organized models of canon and chromatic melody of the central movement, fugue postulated by Bach and his contempo- which evokes the melancholy pastorales of the raries. The Third Quartet therefore represents tárogató, a Hungarian single-reed woodwind in- a marvelous synthesis of West and East—the strument (the composer’s biographer Halsey structural integrity and emotional range of Stevens wrote that it was “somewhat like a Bach wedded to the melodic and rhythmic ex- straight wooden ”) that Bartók en- oticisms of Slavic folksong. countered during his field researches. The ten- The Third Quartet, one of Bartók’s most dency of themes constructed from these tiny tightly constructed works, is disposed as a folk gestures when subjected to the develop- large single span divided into four sections. mental and harmonic pressures applied by Part I opens with a mysterious harmonic cur- Bartók is, however, to fragment and fly apart. To tain which serves as an introduction to the counterbalance this problem, Bartók used for work’s germinal theme—a tiny fragment com- this Quartet a rigorous overall formal structure prising a rising fourth and a falling minor that describes an arch shape centered upon the third initiated by the violin in measu re six, at third of its five movements: fast–scherzo–slow– the point where the lower strings remove their scherzo–fast. The first and fifth movements are mutes. The first section is largely based on the paired in their mood, tempo, and thematic ma- extensive permutations of this pregnant the- terial, an association further enhanced by shar- matic kernel through imitation, inversion, ing the same music in their closing pages. The

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES second and fourth movements, both scherzos, (A–B–A), and Bartók drew the symmetry into are related in their themes, their head-long the smallest levels of the movement by echo- rhythmic propulsion and their use of novel ef- ing the upward-arching, one-measure theme fects from the strings: the second movement is with its descending inversion. The central Trio played throughout with mutes, while the fourth is distinguished by its quicker tempo, inces- movement requires a continuous pizzicato, in- sant ribbon of violin notes, and rustic folk cluding the percussive snapping of the strings dance in limping rhythms. The Andante posits against the fingerboard that Bartók was among three thematic ideas that transform motives the first composers to use. The slow movement, from the Adagio (repeated pizzicato; bounc- the midpoint of the structure, is itself organized ing bows; murmured scales and canonic treat- symmetrically in three parts (A–B–A) around ment of the Adagio’s third theme) and their the twittering “” of its central section. truncated returns to round out the movement. At the center stands a new snapping theme String Quartet No. B which is developed and woven with the move- ment’s other ideas. The finale is a free rondo Composed in IQKL. Premièred on April P, IQKM, with sonata elements based on a fiery dance in Washington, D.C., by the Kolisch Quartet. melody constructed from small, twisting in- tervals. Just as the movement reaches its cli- The movements of the Quartet No. 5, like max (in a passage whose ferocious rhythms those comprising the Fourth Quartet, the recall Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony), the music Second , and the Concerto for stops for a grotesque, barrel-organ transfor- Orchestra, are arr anged according to a broad, mation of the first episode’s theme before a symmetrical plan, a so-called “arch form,” in blazing epilogue closes the Quartet. which the central movement is flanked, mir- ror-fashion, by parallel balancing movements: String Quartet No. C fast–slow–scherzo–slow–fast. The integrity of this structure is enhanced by having a theme Composed in 1939. Premièred on January 20, from the first movement reappear in the fi- 1941, in by the Kolisch Quartet. nale, and by making the fourth movement a free variation of the second. Symmetrical pro- “Yes, those were horrible days for us, too, cedures extend as w ell to the internal work- those days when Austria was attacked,” Bartók ing-out of individual movements. The responded from Budapest on April 13, 1938, opening sonata-form movement is based on to his loyal friend in Basle, Switzerland, three themes: a motive of hammered repeated Mrs. Oscar Müller-Widmann. “The most notes; a brusque rhythmic figure upon which frightful thing for us at the moment is that we are superimposed short, winding melodic face the threat of seeing Hungary also given phrases; and a smoothly flowing strain in over to this régime of bandits and murderers. triplet rhythms. Following the development I cannot imagine how I could live in such a section, the three motives are recapitulated in country.... Strictly speaking, it would be my reverse order and in inversion, and the move- duty to exile myself, if that is still possible. But ment is capped by a vigorous coda: A–B–C– even under the most favorable auspices, it development–C–B–A–coda. The Adagio, a would cause me an enormous amount of trou- fine example of the rustling “night music” that ble and moral anguish to earn my daily bread Bartók favored for many of his slow move- in a foreign country.... All this adds up to the ments, follows a similar plan, though with dif- same old problem, whether to go or stay.” ferent proportions and expressive effect: Given the unsettled and frightening politi- A (trills and two-note atoms)–B (chorale)– cal situation under which all eastern C (pizzicato glissandos, , and evanes- Europeans found themselves during the terri- cent scale fragments)–B (abbreviated)–A ble d ays of 1938 and 1939, it is little wonder (abbreviated). The conventional form of that Bartók’s creativity was undermined. the Scherzo and Trio is already symmetrical He managed to complete the

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

No. 2 in December 1938, but then became too The noted French musicologist Harry preoccupied with the deteriorating life around Halbreich wrote that the Quartet No. 6 “ap- him to undertake any further original work. peals to us as an intensely moving human Paul Sacher, the conductor of the Basel document with a foundation that is at least au- Chamber Orchestra and a close friend who tobiographical, if not also that of ‘program had commissioned the Music for Strings, music.’ Bartók’s iron grip, which formerly kept Percussion, and two years before, rec- under control every outburst, however vio- ognized that Bartók needed to leave Budapest lent, of the composer’s temperament, here if his creativity was to be revived, so he invited gives way to a subjectivity and directness of the composer and his wife to spend the sum- expression that make this one of the most mer of 1939 at his chalet at Saanen in the mas- moving and easily appreciated of Bartók’s sif of Gruyère in Switzerland and then asked works.” The Quartet takes as its motto an him to write a new work for his orchestra. arching, step-wise melody marked Mesto— Bartók accepted both of the invitations and “sad”—given at the beginning by the unac- arrived at Saanen in July. Even in Switzerland, companied viola. This theme unifies the however, Bartók could not escape the omi- whole composition by reappeari ng in differ- nous European political situation. “The poor, ent settings at the beginnings of the second peaceful, honest Swiss are being compelled to and third movements, and by serving as the burn with war-f ever,” he wrote to his son Béla principal subject of the finale. The first move- in Hungary on August 18th. ment is a based on a flying main Once installed at Saanen, however, Bartók theme and a second theme grown from the vi- retreated into a welcome isolation to under- brant rhythms and winding melodic leadings take Sacher’s commission. “Fortunately, I can of Hungarian folksong. The dotted-rhythm put this [war] worry out of my mind if I have Marcia, savagely ironic and unsettlingly dia- to,” he continued in his letter to Béla. “I have bolical, is strongly contrasted by the gapped- to work: a piece for Sacher himself (something scale melody and rustling accompaniment of for a string orchestra). Luckily the work went the central trio. The bitter, menacing humor well, and I finished it in 1 5 days. I just com- of the Burletta (“Burlesque”) is ameliorated, pleted it yesterday.” The work was the though not overcome, by the pastoral music Divertimento for String Orchestra, one of of the movement’s internal episodes. The fi- Bartók’s most immediately accessible compo- nale unfolds dolefully from the Mesto theme, sitions. The halcyon Swiss interlude during allowing ghostly reminiscences of the two which he produced this piece was not to last, themes from the first movement before giv- however. Almost as soon as he had begun the ing one final loud wail and ebbing into silence. Sixth Quartet at Saanen, word came from Each successive movement of the Sixth Budapest of his beloved mother’s death. He re- Quartet is more melancholy in mood and turned home, where he completed—though slower in tempo—Vivace, Marcia, Moderato, with considerable difficulty—the Quartet in Mesto—so that the work ends with a feeling of November 1939. It was the last work that he bleak resignation, perhaps indicating the wrote in Europe, and his last until the growing pessimism that overcame Bartók Concerto for Orchestra four years later. His during the time of its creation. “Nowhere in situation in Budapest became untenable dur- all Bartók’s music is there a movement so re- ing the following months, and in April 1940, strained and at the same time with such a he sailed to America for a concert tour with powerful impact,” wrote Halsey Stevens of the the violinist Joseph Szigeti. After an arduous finale in his study of the composer. journey home that summer to settle his affairs and collect his wife, he went back to New York © JHIK Dr. Richard E. Rodda in October and never again saw Hungary. The Quartet was premièred in New York on January 20, 1941, by the Kolisch Quartet.

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

In 2013–2014, the Takács returns to Japan and Singapore, and also per form Bartók cycles throughout the United States, including per- formances at Ravinia, Carnegie Hall, Princeton, Kennedy Center, Cal Performances, Stanford, , and Cleveland. The Quartet recently toured in North America with pianists Marc- André Hamelin and Garrick Ohlsson, includ- ing concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center. The Quartet’s award-winning recordings in- clude the complete Beethoven cycle on the Decca label. In 2005, the late Beethoven quar- tets won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, a Gramophone Award, and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of the early and mid- dle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy Award, another Gramophone Award, a of America Award, and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy. Of their performances and record-

Peter Smith Peter ings of the late quartets, The Cleveland Plain ECOGNIZEDAS one of the world’s great en- Dealer wrote, “The Takács might play this Rsembles, the Takács Quartet—Edward repertoire better than any quartet of the past Dusinberre, first violin; Károly Schranz, sec- or present.” ond violin; Geraldine Walther, viola; and In 2006, the Takács Quartet made their first András Fejér, cello—plays with a unique blend recording for Hyperion Records, of Schubert’s of drama, warmth, and humor, combining String Quartets, D804 and D810. A disc fea- four distinct musical personalities to bring turing Brahms’s Piano Quintet with Stephen fresh insights to the string quartet repertoire. Hough was released to great acclaim in In 2012, Gramophone announced that the November 2007 and was subsequently nomi- Takács was the only string quartet to be in- nated for a Grammy. Brahms’s Quartets ducted into its first Hall of Fame, along with Opp. 51 and 67 were released in fall 2008 and such legendary artists as , a disc featuring the Schumann Piano Quintet Leonard Bernstein, and Dame Janet Baker. with Mr. Hamelin was released in late 2009. The ensemble also won the 2011 Award for The complete Haydn “Apponyi” Quartets, Chamber Music and Song presented by the Opp. 71 and 74, were subsequently released, Royal Philharmonic Society in London. Based followed in 2012 by a Schubert Quintet CD in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the with Ralph Kirshbaum. The three Britten Takács Quartet performs 90 concerts a year quartets were released in 2013. worldwide, in North America, throughout The Quartet has also made 16 recordings for Europe, and in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Decca label since 1988 of works by and South Korea. Beethoven, Bartók, Borodin, Brahms, Appointed in 2012 as the first-ever Associate Chausson, Dvořák, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Artists at Wigmore Hall in London, the and Smetana. The ensemble’s recording of the Takács will present six concerts per season six Bartók quartets received the 1998 there. Other European engagements include Gramophone Award for chamber music and, performances in the Concertgebouw in in 1999, was nominated for a Grammy. In ad- , the Musikverein in Vienna, and dition to the cycle record- the Musée d’Orsay in . ing, the ensemble’s other Decca recordings

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS include Dvořák’s String Quartet in E-flat special emphasis on chamber music, where major, Op. 51, and Piano Quintet in A major, students work in a nurturing environment de- Op. 81, with pianist Andreas Haefliger; signed to help them develop their artistry. The Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet with Mr. Haefliger, Quartet’s commitment to teaching is en- which was nominated in 2000 for a Grammy; hanced by summer residencies at the Aspen string quartets by Smetana and Borodin; Festival and at the Music Academy of the Schubert’s Quartet in G major and “Notturno” West in Santa Barbara. The Takács is a with Mr. Haefliger; the three Visiting Quartet at the Guildhall School of Brahms string quartets and Piano Quintet in F Music and Drama, London. minor with pianist András Schiff; Chausson’s The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jean-Yves Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Thibaudet; and Mozart’s String Quintets, Ormai, and András Fejér, while all four were K. 515 and K. 516, with György Pauk, viola. students. It first received international atten- The Quartet is known for innovative pro- tion in 1977, winning First Prize and the gramming. In 2007, it performed, with Critics’ Prize at the International String Academy Award-winning actor Philip Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Seymour Hoffman, Everyman in Carnegie Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Hall, inspired by the Philip Roth novel. The Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and group collaborates regularly with the First Prizes at the Budapest International Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikás, perform- String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the ing a program that explores the folk sources Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet of Bartók’s music. The Takács performed a made its North American début tour in 1982. music and poetry program on a 14-city U.S. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the tour with the poet Robert Pinsky. In 2010, the Quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping in Takács collaborated with the Colorado 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced Shakespeare Festival and David Lawrence Mr. Tapping in 2005. In 2001 the Takács Morse on a drama project that explored the Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of composition of Beethoven’s last quartets. the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary, The members of the Takács Quartet are and in March 2011 each member of the Christoffersen Faculty Fellows at the Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit University of Colorado Boulder. The Quartet Commander’s Cross by the President of the has helped to develop a string program with a Republic of Hungary.

CAL PERFORMANCES