#takacs quartet

[loveofdetail]

uh oh i’m listening to beethoven’s late quartets again 😭

[mamusiq]

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love String Quartets

🎻🎻🎻🎻

Listen as our writers and some of our favorite artists share music of intimacy, intensity and joy. Credit...Angie Wang    Feb. 3, 2021 In the past, we’ve chosen the five minutes or so we would play to make our friends fall in love with classical music, the piano, opera, the cello, Mozart, 21st-century composers, the violin, Baroque music, sopranos, Beethoven and the flute. Now we want to convince those curious friends to love string quartets — the intimacy, intensity and joy of two violins, a viola and cello. We hope you find lots here to discover and enjoy; leave your choices in the comments.

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Rostam Batmanglij, musician and producer   You might know the second movement of Ravel’s Quartet from the film “The Royal Tenenbaums.” But no recording can capture seeing it performed. The movement begins with every player plucking, and you quickly realize the importance of communication between the musicians, and how much of that communication is based on movement — a conversation that’s both separate from and deeply connected to the music. In 2010, I was lucky enough to have four friends sight-read the piece in my living room, an experience I’ll never forget. Ravel’s Quartet   Ysaÿe Quartet (Decca) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWYHn9TtfCU 🎻🎻🎻🎻  David Allen, Times writer   It was Haydn who made the string quartet a core musical genre, and each of his 68 quartets offers something special. Perhaps best of all, though, is the “Emperor” Quartet, written in 1797 and so named because its slow movement is a theme-and-variations hymn on a song Haydn had offered to the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II. (It’s better known today as the German national anthem.) As the melody is passed from instrument to instrument, there could be nothing more simple, and, by the close, nothing more touching.   Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet   Takacs Quartet (Decca) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 John Darnielle, Mountain Goats founder   To make you love classical music, I’d need your solemn word that you’ll spend five minutes in a state of deep but pleasant focus, not trying too hard to “get” it. It’s music; we hear it and feel it; we can get into formal analysis later, if we feel like it! But who can make such a promise in these times? Which is why I want you to play Reza Vali’s “Ashoob (Calligraphy No. 14)” and just let it do its thing, swaying from counterpoint to unison and back again in scales that may or may not be familiar to your ear but whose harmonies and rhythms are bracing, vivid splashes of deep color. Especially the concluding 90 seconds — full unison! — and the afterword, an audible comment from a scribe. You can’t help but want more, and the world of the quartet is a world where more is always possible. Reza Vali’s “Ashoob (Calligraphy No. 14)”   Carpe Diem Quartet 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Zachary Woolfe, Times classical music editor   One of the alchemies of music is that four is the most intimate number. Perhaps because it echoes the mysterious privacy of the family unit, a string quartet somehow radiates greater intensity than a solo or duet — intensity rarely as fervent as in the slow movement of Shostakovich’s 10th Quartet, from 1964. This enigmatic composer’s 15 quartets are endlessly mined for glimpses of the “real” Shostakovich, with an emphasis on bitter disillusionment and a mood of martyrdom: both present in this rending Adagio. But even here, the music is equivocal, its swollen solemnity migrating toward not-quite-resolution. Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 10  Fitzwilliam Quartet (Decca) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Geeta Dayal, writer   Terry Riley is most famous for “In C,” a watershed in 20th-century music. But he soon moved beyond the sparkling repetitions of his early works, delving into electronic music and non-Western forms. By the 1980s, Riley had shifted his focus to string quartets, composing with the Kronos Quartet in mind. His two-hour “Salome Dances for Peace,” a cycle of five quartets from 1989, was the heady peak of their collaboration. The bracing opener, “Anthem of the Great Spirit: The Summons,” sets the stage for a kaleidoscopic journey — an exuberant soundtrack for contemplating peace and harmony on earth.    Terry Riley’s “Salome Dances for Peace”   Kronos Quartet (Nonesuch) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, Times writer   By turns tender and impassioned, this gem of a musical fairy tale shows how versatile the string quartet can be in the hands of a skilled poet. As is often the case in quartets of the early 19th century, the first violin carries most of the story. Yet the ever-changing configurations of the other players conjure sudden mood shifts, and push things into more dramatic territory.  Fanny Mendelssohn’s Quartet Quatuor Ébène (Erato) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Paul Laraia, Catalyst Quartet violist   With so many choices, I let my violist’s heart guide me, and decided on this 1940 recording by the Primrose Quartet, a legendary group (and one named after its violist!). In the slow movement of Smetana’s autobiographical First Quartet, each player offers moments of individual expression, artfully woven together. It’s a special recording that captures this composer’s vision of intimate conversation. Smetana’s Quartet No. 1, “From My Life”  Primrose Quartet 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center director   I was in high school when I heard this quartet for the first time. The second movement is playful; it has all kinds of spirited hockets and stuff people like to listen to. And then the next movement is just beautiful; it’s like one long line. It’s very Haydn-esque: I think at the end of Beethoven’s life, he’s bringing in a much larger swath of the tradition, and he achieves a synthesis. You don’t have to explain anything about it. I think if you have to do a lot of explaining, you’re in trouble. Music should speak for itself, and Beethoven always does.  Beethoven’s Quartet No. 16   Emerson Quartet (Deutsche Grammophon) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Lawrence Dutton, Emerson Quartet violist   In the vast literature for string quartet, Beethoven shines above all others. He wrote 16 quartets, and they were his most personal statements; he finished his compositional life writing five of them. I chose the Lento assai movement of what is known as his last completed work, Op. 135, because it is one of the most beautiful, heart-rending expressions of human emotion. This glorious music resonates even more vividly for me in this frightening, tumultuous time.   Beethoven’s Quartet No. 16 Emerson Quartet (Deutsche Grammophon) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Seth Colter Walls, Times writer  Leroy Jenkins’s skill as a violinist (and sometime violist) is well documented. Yet recordings of his music played by others are rarer, which makes the Soldier Quartet’s take on “Themes and Improvisations on the Blues” such a welcome artifact. Some of the writing has a puckish air reminiscent of Neo-Classical Stravinsky, refracted through an American prism. When members of the quartet respond to Jenkins’s invitation to improvise — he calculated that approximately 30 percent of this performance was spontaneously conceived — their bent notes and dramatic glissandos echo the songful cries of Jenkins’s own playing.   Leroy Jenkins’s “Themes and Improvisations on the Blues”   Soldier Quartet (New World Records) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Andrew Yee, Attacca Quartet cellist    When I became friends with the composer Paul Wiancko a few years ago, he sent me a few of his pieces after a lunch of Japanese curry. When “Lift” played, it was as if a new color had been revealed that my eyes had been too lazy to see. Wiancko speaks through the string quartet in a voice that is fiercely honest, kind and full of life. It’s everything I want music in the 21st century to be. The first three minutes here squeeze life into slow, gliding harmonies that are interrupted by a straight-out party. Paul Wiancko’s “Lift”   Aizuri Quartet (New Amsterdam) 🎻🎻🎻🎻 Joshua Barone, Times editor   Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet is one of the most famous ever written, and for good reason. It’s focused to the point of obsession yet emotionally expansive, beautiful even at its most desperate and forlorn. The spirit of Schubert’s earlier song “Death and the Maiden” courses through all four movements but is most explicit in the second, a set of variations based on the song’s funereal march, whispered by the strings with chorale-like simplicity. The Maiden (first violin) exchanges passages with Death (the cello), in a conversation that, for all its pleading and defiance, arrives back at the opening theme. But now in a major key: serene, at rest. Schubert’s Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden” Quatuor van Kuijk (Alpha Classics)

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Gabriella Smith, composer  When I was a teenager, I had a volunteer job on a songbird research project that involved getting up at 4 a.m. every Sunday. To wake up that early, I would set my alarm to blast the blazing final movement of Bartok’s Fourth Quartet. The first raucous chords would make me leap out of bed in the dark. Then I would get ready while rocking out to the driving, almost sing-along-able tunes and stabbing chords; it was a wonderful prelude to the dawn chorus.  Bartok’s Quartet No. 4  Takacs Quartet (Decca)

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Jennifer Walshe, composer   It is a concert recording. Breathe into it. A makeup artist can cast an eye over a bank of 200 lipsticks, all of which most people would describe as “red,” and pick the one that’s perfect for you. This piece is the same kind of act of patience and devotion, featuring that most emo of musical objects: the minor chord. There’s a whole lot of pitches between the equal-tempered notes of the piano, and Tony Conrad wants to float you in that space. This is no abstract mathematical exercise; it’s a love of strange shadings and subtle glosses. What can be found.  Tony Conrad’s “Minor”  Mivos Quartet

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Anthony Tommasini, Times chief classical music critic    Many years ago, I attended the wedding of two musician friends during which the slow movement of Debussy’s Quartet was performed to provide a moment of reflection. A perfect choice: With its wistful theme that unfolds over rich, often elusive harmonies, and episodes that shift from tenderness to restless anxiety, the music is a portrait of a couple beginning a life together, calm in their devotion, exuding love, yet aware that the future may hold crisis and uncertainty. Many ensembles play this Andantino too slowly, but the Alban Berg Quartet’s approach is radiant and melting, yet also flowing.   Debussy’s Quartet  Alban Berg Quartet (Warner Classics)

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Markus Hinterhäuser, pianist and Salzburg Festival artistic director  “I turn my inside outward”: This sentence from Robert Burton’s “The Anatomy of Melancholy” might offer an approach to this moment of sublime inspiration. Beethoven wrote his “Holy Song of Thanks of a Convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode” after overcoming a grave illness. It is music of infinite tenderness, removed from all earthly concerns — a music of faith, trust, joy and consolation. “You cannot understand anything until you have heard it,” declares Mark Rampion, painter and protagonist of Aldous Huxley’s novel “Point Counter Point,” after listening to a recording of this meditation on the unspeakable.   Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15  Busch Quartet (Warner Classics)

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Kjartan Sveinsson, composer and former Sigur Ros keyboardist   The string quartet is one of the greatest combinations of instruments. Its range, dynamic and timbre provide endless possibilities. That said, it is also very challenging for a composer. To name a favorite is equally hard, but the winner has to be the Ravel Quartet, in which the composer utilizes the instruments and the relation between them like there is no tomorrow, with a pleasing and sensible tonal language, making do with the special “effects” available at the time. This work always amazes me when I hear it, especially the joyful and dancing second part, with its pizzicato.   Ravel’s Quartet  Juilliard Quartet (Sony Classical)

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Christopher Otto, JACK Quartet violinist   Sabrina Schroeder’s “UNDERROOM,” for amplified string quartet and live electronics, is an otherworldly and enveloping experience. It transports me to a place of primal intensity and beauty. In her program note, Sabrina references Temple Grandin’s “hug machine,” which feels apt: The music goes beyond just the sound, taking on a tangible, visceral quality that embraces me to the core. The electronics, controlled live by the composer, process the sounds we create on our de-tuned instruments, expanding both the sonic range and the emotional palette of the traditional string quartet.   Sabrina Schroeder’s “UNDERROOM”  JACK Quartet

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/arts/music/five-minutes-string-quartet-classical-music.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF4_sHvO3hHyfWWL3t6ph8WzZUrx02Qmj

 <iframe frameborder="0" height="506" src="https://youtube.com/embed/0VVYFlbLDOI?list=PLF4_sHvO3hHyfWWL3t6ph8WzZUrx02Qmj" width="900"></iframe>

[allkindsofgoodmusic]

The Albums: 

Antonín Dvořák - Piano Quartets Op 23 & 87/Busch Trio

Antonín Dvořák - String Quintet Op 97 & String Quartet Op 105/Takács Quartet

Antonín Dvořák - Piano Quintet Op 81 & String Quintet Op 97/Pavel Haas Quartet

2017 has been a really good year for the chamber music of Dvořák. Since Dvořák’s chamber music belongs to the pinnacles of romantic music, this is something to celebrate. Just in the last month or so we have had three excellent releases. Or more precisely, two of them are excellent, one is even better.

I’ve written about the Busch Trio before on this blog when they recorded Dvořák’s Piano Trios. Now they’re back with the Piano Quartets and the same qualities that made the trios so successful are evident again. I wrote about the Trios that: 

“Their playing is remarkably tight, rhythms are crisp and precise (essential in Dvořák) but at the same time they never come over as dry or clinical. The sweetness of Dvořák’s gorgeous melodies is there at all times and they are always ready to let the sunshine in.”

I can only repeat the same accolades again. Violist Miguel da Silva blends in perfectly with the Busch Trio and especially the second trio comes over very well. I have rarely heard the slow movement performed as beautifully as here and cellist Ori Epstein has a truly gorgeous tone.

Takács Quartet have recorded the late quartet op 105 which is not played as often as it deserves. It’s a lovely, more autumnal piece than most of his other quartets. Takács plays well as always. The scherzo and the slow movement are especially impressive with a combination of quick reflexes, subtle dynamics and strong accents. The only criticism is that in some places I felt that Takács sounded a little thin and strident. This is even more evident in the String Quintet op 97. They have added a star player in violist Lawrence Power and again the playing is in many ways excellent, but the quintet would do well with a little more opulence, especially in the finale.

Impressive as both Takács and Busch may be, pride of place certainly goes to Pavel Haas Quartet and their recording of the same String Quintet Takács recorded, but here it is coupled with what is perhaps Dvořák’s most beloved chamber piece, the second Piano Quintet. When comparing Takács and Pavel Haas in the String Quintet you immediately hear what was missing with Takács. Pavel Haas are capable to produce a more lush sound when needed and also have a dynamic range that Takács can’t match. That’s not to say that Pavel Haas interpretation is only a big boned romantic one. They can do details, sharp rhythms and subtle textures just as well as anyone else. 

In the Piano Quintet they are joined by pianist Boris Giltburg. The piano part is tricky since the virtuosity easily lures a less sensitive pianist to drown out the strings. But Giltburg and Pavel Haas are perfectly matched. The third movement especially is a great showcase of the range this team has. They start with supreme virtuosity (especially first violin Veronika Jarůšková), followed by the nimble and witty second subject. The middle section is suddenly wistful and nostalgic and gives Pavel Haas the opportunity to indulge in their warm luxurious sound, and finally Giltburg leads the whole movement to a truly showstopping end (Dvořák marked this movement as “Furiant”, which gives a hint of what Giltburg/Pavel Haas aims for).  

This is a reading that deserves to be compared to legendary classics such as Richter/Borodin Quartet, Curzon/Vienna Philharmonic Quartet and Štěpán/Smetana Quartet.

[tensileacuity]

Borodin: String Quarter No. 2/Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 (2000) - The Takacs Quartet

[johnjpuccio]

Review of “Schubert: Trout Quintet.” Andreas Haefliger, piano; Takacs Quartet. London 289 460 034-2

I once wrote that there were as many "Trout" recordings in the music world as there were fish in the sea. If I didn't, I should have. Sometimes we wonder why record companies keep releasing the same tired, old stuff over and over again, but in the case of Schubert's "Trout," there is ample justification. This 1999 recording will appear to some listeners as sparkling with freshness and to others as infuriating in its garden-variety plainness. Whatever, it's another interpretation to consider.

With Andreas Haefliger, piano, and Joseph Carver, double bass, the Takacs Quartet take on three popular chamber pieces from Schubert, Wolf, and Mozart. Overall, they do acceptable work, but whether any of the performances are better than old favorites in this repertoire I find doubtful.

To read the full review, click here:

https://classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2018/08/schubert-trout-quintet-cd-review.html

John J. Puccio, Classical Candor

[todayclassical]

April 24 in Music History

1538 Birth of composer Gugliemo Gonzaga.

1594 Birth of composer Benedikt Lechler.

1670 Birth of composer Christian Ludwig Boxberg.

1706 Birth of Italian composer Giovanni Martini in Bologna. 

1721 Birth of German composer Johann Philipp Kirberger. 

1742 Birth of composer Roman Hoffstetter.

1764 FP of Hasse's "Egeria" in Vienna.

1784 FP of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15 in Bb, K. 450 in Vienna. 

1800 Birth of Austrian violinist, composer Georg Hellmesberger.

1801 Haydn finishes his oratorio The Seasons and performs it the same day at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna.

1819 FP of Rossini's "Edoardo e Cristina" in Venice.

1821 FP in US of the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 by The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia at its first concert.

1846 Death of Italian soprano-castrato Girolamo Crescentini. 

1847 FP of Offenbach's "L'Alcôve" in Paris.

1854 Birth of Austrian baritone-tenor Adolf Wallofer in Vienna. 

1860 FP of Hernándo's "El tambor", a zarzuela, in Madrid.

1867 Birth of Czech composer Karel Navratil in Prague. 1869 FP of Delibes' "La Cour du roi Pétaud" in Paris.

1870 Birth of German baritone Otto Reutter in Gardelegen. 

1874 FP of Tchaikovsky's "Oprichnik" in St Petersburg.

1875 Birth of composer Jeno Huszka.

1877 Birth of composer Charles Cuvillier.

1886 Birth of American coloratura soprano Mabel Garrison.

1897 Birth of composer György Kósa.

1907 Birth of composer Vaclav Trojan.

1909 Birth of Swedish soprano Hjördis Schymberg in Alno, Sweden. 

1911 Birth of composer Sigursveinn David Kristinsson.

1920 Birth of Italian baritone-tenor Rinaldo Pelizzoni. 

1921 Birth of Italian tenor Luigi Infantino.

1921 Birth of composer Laci Boldemann.

1924 Birth of composer Yehoshua Lakner.

1924 FP of Sauguet's "Le Plumet du colonel" in Paris.

1924 FP of Berners' "Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement" in Paris.

1928 Birth of composer Gustav Krivinka.

1929 Birth of composer Ferit Tuzun.

1931 Death of Hungarian baritone Dezso Zador.

1932 FP of Kódaly's "Székely Fonó" in Budapest.

1934 Laurens Hammond patents his electric organ. 1936 Death of Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren in London. 

1941 Birth of Australian guitarist John Christopher Williams in Melbourne.

1944 Birth of Irish soprano Norma Burrows.

1945 Birth of Hungarian mezzo-soprano Karla Takacs in Budapest.

1946 Birth of American composer and teacher Bruce Saylor.

1948 Death of Mexican composer Manuel Ponce in Mexico City. 

1950 FP of Leonard Bernstein's incidental music Peter Pan based on the play by J.M. Barrie, conducted by Ben Steinberg at the Imperial Theater in NYC.

1954 Birth of American bass Kevin Maynor in Mount Vernon, NY.

1957 FP of Charles Ives' String Quartet No. 1,in NYC.

1960 Death of German bass-baritone Carl Braun. 

1962 Birth of Norwegian trumpeter Ole Edvard Antonsen.

1964 Birth of American composer Augusta Read Thomas in NYC.

1964 Birth of American composer Brian Robinson.

1966 Death of Icelandic tenor Einar Kristiansson. 

1966 Death of Croatian tenor Tino Pattiera. 

1970 Death of Italian soprano Adriana Guerrini. 

1970 Birth of American composer James Matheson.

1976 FP of Argento's "The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe" in St. Paul, MN. 

1981 FP of C. Floyd's "Willie Stark" in Houston.

1985 FP of Argento's "Casanova's Homecoming", opera buffa, in St Paul, MN. 

1988 FP of Anthony Davis' Notes from the Underground dedicated to Ralph Ellison. American Composers Orchestra, Paul Lustig Dunkel conducting at Carnegie Hall in NYC.

1990 FP of Bright Sheng's Four Movemenets for piano trio. The Peabody Trio at Alice Tully Hall in NYC.

1992 FP of Joan Tower's Violin Concerto. The soloist Elmar Oliveira and the Utah Symphony, Joseph Silverstein conducting.

1997 FP of Stephen Paulus' opera The Three Hermits at House of Hope Presbyterian Church Thomas Lancaster conducting in St. Paul, MN.

1998 Death of American composer Mel Powell.

2003 FP of David Lang's Difficulty. Ethyl String Quartet, Miller Theater, in NYC.

2003 FP of Michael Nyman's Manhatta a score for a film by Paul Strand. 

2004 FP of Steven Stucky´s Sonate en Formne de Preludes at Carnegie Hall, New York City.

2004 FP of Daniel Dorf´s The Bear went under the mountain. for Narrator and Mixed Quintet.

[mikrokosmos]

do you have a favourite chamber music group? or like, combination of instruments? i'm in love with piano atm ahhh

I don’t have any particular “favorite” chamber groups…the Beaux Arts Trio are great with Schubert and Beethoven, I really like the Takacs Quartet’s recording of Bartok’s SQs, and I like how the Kronos Quartet is kind of doing their own thing and doing transcriptions and working with plenty of contemporary composers.

For instrument combos…I pretty much enjoy any string or woodwind + piano, I like the old Baroque style of pairing a few instruments with a harpsichord, something like a Sonata for Violin, Cello, Flute, and B.C. Of my favorite chamber music that comes to mind, I think the piano trio is my favorite combo [violin cello and piano]

[zestaffer]

Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet is on a new album from the Takacs Quartet and Garrick Ohlsson.

[ansaemiliaromagna]

Musica: Takacs Quartet torna a Bologna

Concerto domani al Manzoni, replica martedì a Milano https://ift.tt/2QaWVia

[pastdaily]

(via The Takacs Quartet In Concert From Paris - 2013 - Past Daily Mid-Week Concert - Past Daily)

[hardcorefornerds]

This weekend I read a shortish book, Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet, by Edward Dusinberre (Faber & Faber, 2016). Dusinberre is the lead violinist of the Takacs Quartet, an originally all-Hungarian string quartet that relocated to the US in the 1980s. The book follows the story of the group from the time of his joining, with each chapter based around the rehearsal and performance of a different Beethoven string quartet work, combined with the history of their composition. In the prologue  he writes:

“During my first years as a quartet player I could easily understand the bemusement of those players and audiences who first encountered these quartes. Now I wonder if an attitude of shock and puzzlement, far from being merely the easily scorned reaction of a novice, is in fact integral to appreciating the spirit music, Absorbing myself in the circumstances that surrounded the composition of the Beethoven quartets, learning about the reactions and motivations of the patrons who commissioned the music and the audiences that heard them, has been a way for me to prevent the music ever becoming too comfortably familiar, to ensure that the spirit of challenge of these quartets is sustained every time we perform them.”

I came across the above video on YouTube a while ago, seeking to widen my appreciation of Beethoven beyond his 5th Symphony. Probably the word ‘Fugue’ caught my eye as I’d been listening to a lot of Bach - and I liked the animated scores of username ‘smalin’ (Stephen Malinowski) which show some of the dynamic structure of the music, although I prefer some of the visual techniques to others. In any case the sound of piece captivated me, along with the vigorous debate in the comments about whether it sounded wonderful or awful, and testaments from those who described how they came to embrace more dissonance

There the idea was also being put forward that Beethoven, having gone deaf at this stage, composing music entirely in his ‘mind’, could reach for more purely intellectual relationships of sound that initially seem physical grating. I can’t really make any claims on this one way or the other, since I’m still having trouble consciously and reliably identifying specific consonances, but I enjoy the Fugue (possibly for its rhythmic as much as harmonic vigour). Intellectually, I’m fascinated by the mathematical basis of tonal harmony, the ‘consonant’ intervals of superparticular ratios (n+1:n, i.e. 2:1 for an octave, 3:2 for a perfect fifth, etc.) although I’m a way from appreciating them in practice or in real-time, unaided. 

Yet even for the musically uneducated like me, the listening experience is already driven by our unconscious, physiologically fundamental, recognition of harmony and shades of dissonance, in what I gather are still scientifically mysterious ways (how does our brain actually process pitch, and why has this evolved into such a refined aesthetic perception?). We also understand music stretched through time and memory, both diachronically - comparing each pitch to the last, in the case of the sequential intervals of melody - and synchronically, in perceiving the harmonic structure of multiple notes sounding together. It often seems to me that the most refined beauty of music, especially classical music, can exist in a single moment of a note hanging in the air - but of course this is an illusion, because such an infinitesimal ‘present’ only makes sense in the context of the flow of music, past and present, surrounding it. 

The book ends with a chapter on Opus 130, No.13 in B Flat, the final movement of which was originally the Great Fugue before the publishers persuaded Beethoven to replace it with an easier-to-listen finale, and publish the Fugue as a separate work (Opus 133). Dusinberre makes the case for an appreciation of both:

“in his two endings to Opus 130 the ambivalences and contradictions that dominate his late style come to a head. Nearly two hundred years later passionate preferences for one or the other reaffirm the dualistic tendencies of his art and present a dilemma that can never entirely be resolved.”       

[oberlinconservatory]

A Chat with Violin Professor Sibbi Bernhardsson

Violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson ’95 joined the Oberlin string faculty in the fall of 2017. He has been planning and presenting great recital programs since his arrival, including a concert of Brahms and Mendelssohn quintets with fellow faculty members and a showcase of chamber and vocal works of Robert Schumann—with many more upcoming dates in the spring semester.  Bernhardsson takes the stage in a duo recital with longtime faculty pianist Peter Takács on February 28, 2018 (more details below.) We sat down with the 1995 Oberlin graduate, former member of the Pacifica Quartet, and new Oberlin professor to hear about his student days, his perspective on the conservatory, and the inspiration behind his many collaborative projects.  

Who was your violin teacher at Oberlin?   “My violin teachers at Oberlin were Almita and Roland Vamos. Some of my best friends today are people I met as a student here at Oberlin. There are some current faculty members that influenced me in a profound way while I was a student. Marilyn McDonald gave me wonderful chamber music coachings. Milan Vitek spent one year at Oberlin as a sabbatical replacement during my time here. He brought with him many great students and I observed a few of his master classes which impressed and inspired me a great deal. And, Jim Howsmon performed with me and even recorded a CD with me.”

Bernhardsson works with Scottish first-year violinist Shannon Mustard during a lesson in his Bibbins Hall studio. What were some of your memories from your student days? “I loved how easy it was to focus and work hard here. I loved how easily all the great resources were available to us as students. I truly felt that the whole environment at Oberlin was set up for students to realize their full potential, if they were willing to take advantage of the opportunities here. I find that to be very much the case today. I also remember fondly the Conservatory Intramural Soccer team. (Especially the year we beat Spanish house in the finals and became Intramural Champions!)”

What do you admire about your students and colleagues here? “There is an overall level of commitment and a constant striving for musical excellence. My colleagues are fantastic in every way. There is a great culture here of helping students every step of the way and being available to them. The students impress me with their hard work, dedication and their boundless energy and creativity.”

On Wednesday, February 28 at 8 pm in Kulas Recital Hall, Professors Bernhardsson and Takács will collaborate on Leoš Janáček’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and Robert Schumann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, Op. 121. To learn more about this free and public performance, visit: our Oberlin events calendar at calendar.oberlin.edu

You have scheduled several performances on campus this year. What kinds of repertoire are you programming? “When I gave up 17 wonderful musical years as a member of an international touring string quartet playing 90-plus concerts a year to take the job at Oberlin, one of the things I was excited about was having time to explore music I had not been able to study or perform. I have made myself a list of works—both core repertoire and a lot of contemporary music—I want to delve into over the next five years. 

Schumann is one of my absolute favorite composers—his intensely personal and intimate musical language speaks to me in a profound way. So, his D-minor piano trio, which I performed with Darrett Adkins and James Howsmon in November, and his second violin sonata which I'll perform with Peter Takacs this month, are on that list of works.”

And finally...What's your favorite spot on campus? “My office! And, of course, Tappan Square.”

[tensileacuity]

Beethoven: The Middle Quartets (2002) - The Takacs Quartet

[josephdiniz]

Sunday morning #cuppajoe made divine while #nowplaying Takacs Quartet - Beethoven - Late String Quartets. #Stunning! #thegeniusofman (at Port Stanley, Ontario)

[musicacademy]

Week one of the Music Academy of the West's 67th annual Summer School and Festival is officially in the bag, and already the lasting musical memories are piling up.

The incomparable Takács Quartet brought its trademark panache to a scintillating program of Beethoven, Barber, and Dvořák in Hahn Hall on Wednesday, serving notice once more that it is indisputably one of the world's truly great ensembles. 

Two days later, this year's String Quartet Seminar participants acquitted themselves wonderfully in a program of works by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Dvořák in Hahn Hall, demonstrating remarkable maturity and poise as performers.

And not to be outdone, members of the Academy Festival Orchestra shined under the batons of guest conductors Jay Friedman and Larry Rachleff at Santa Barbara's newly renovated Lobero Theatre on Saturday evening -- an event notable for its extraordinary energy and festive atmosphere throughout.

Upcoming this week: the season's first Tuesdays @ 8 Concert, eighth blackbird, the Academy Festival Orchestra in the Granada Theatre, and much more.

This year's Festival is off to a great start indeed!! 

Jay Friedman conducts his unique brass arrangement of Richard Strauss’ landmark tone poem An Alpine Symphony to open Saturday's orchestra concert at the Lobero Theatre.

– Tim Dougherty