Every great string quartet inevitably must measure itself against the Beethoven quartets, for much the same reason that great actors measure themselves against the role of Hamlet. This inexhaustibly rich body of masterpieces is so laden with possibility, so challenging on the technical and musical levels, that there is no such thing as the final word on them.
The Takacs Quartet returned to Orchestra Hall Tuesday night to take on three of the Beethoven quartets, making the audience aware, through its bold, communicative, risk-taking performances, how much of those qualities lie in the works themselves. This was an evening of chamber music to nourish mind and soul.
The Takacs players–Edward Dusinberre and Karoly Schranz, violins; Roger Tapping, viola; Andras Fejer, cello–are in the process of recording the complete Beethoven quartets for Decca, a project that has yielded a wonderful set of the three “Rasoumovsky” quartets and the Opus 74.
Tuesday’s more varied program drew on works from the composer’s early, middle and late periods. To trace the evolution of Beethoven’s musical language in roughly two hours’ time asks everything of performers. The Takacs approached its formidable task with all due strength, humility and concentration. They favored extremes of tempo–very hushed and deliberate slow movements and daringly brisk fast ones. Their playing was notable for its exceptional internal balance, warm tonal finish and acute sensitivity to rhythm and structure. But it was the deep expressive conviction behind the playing that one will most remember.
They began with the relatively innocent Classical exuberance of the B-flat Major Quartet, Opus 18, No. 6. The music’s Haydnesque wit and charm was captured with a crisp, light touch that dug deeper in the malinconia introduction to the finale.
The Opus 135 quartet, in F Major, is the composer’s final string quartet and a perennial victim of interpreters bent on abstracting all the humanity out of the music. Not the Takacs. The naturalness and spontaneity of their playing put a smiling face on the music.
Even so, the foursome saved its finest performance for the final “Rasoumovsky” quartet–C Major, Opus 59, No. 3. The reading was notable for its superb control and sheer rhythmic energy, especially in the fugal finale, which was driven by four intense dervishes acting as one. Dusinberre and friends searched out the darker emotional currents below the rippling surface of the Andante con moto. They beautifully balanced the horizontal and vertical elements. Once again, calculated risks were taken. But they all paid off in a reading that was warmly spontaneous, rich in feeling and full of surprises.
Standing ovations are lavished far too routinely on performers these days, but in this case such an ovation was not only welcome but mandatory.
