DAILY CAMERA: Boulder-based Takács opens season with all-Beethoven concert
“Every once in a while, your spirit, your whole being, needs a Beethoven cycle,” Takács String Quartet cellist and founding member András Fejér said.
It is not just that Takács first violinist Edward Dusinberre’s recently published a book on the Beethoven String Quartets that motivated the ensemble to perform all of them this year, Fejér added — although it certainly fits into the equation.
The Grammy Award-winning quartet marks the 30th anniversary of its residency at the University of Colorado’s College of Music in 2016. Its annual five-concert series at Grusin Music Hall in the Imig Music Building is always the hottest ticket on Boulder’s classical scene. Sunday afternoon concerts are always repeated the following Monday evening. Tickets do not sell out as fast as they used to (all except this Sunday’s opener still have seats available), but they undoubtedly will do so, and patrons should act quickly.
While the planned Beethoven cycle will occur throughout the quartet’s national and international touring schedule, several of the 16 works are featured in the Grusin series. The opening concert on Sunday and Monday, the first major Boulder classical music event of the academic year, is an all-Beethoven affair. Only the October program does not include one of the 16.
Fejér said that there are always new ideas and re-evaluations, no matter how many times they have played the works. “We like to have an open mind to different solutions at critical points of the score.”
The season opener begins with the first published quartet, Op. 18, No. 1 in F major.
It continues with the so-called “Serioso” Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 and concludes with the late Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130, using the lighter rondo finale Beethoven substituted for the original fugue.