Takács Quartet March 19, 2009

Program:
Bartok: Quartet No. 3; Beethoven: Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1; Bartok: Quartet No. 6

"The Takács performance was a marvel of lightness and muscle, rhythmic pulse and grace" (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

As described by Gramophone Magazine, The Takács Quartet can "make you believe that there’s no other possible way the music should go" - a talent which speaks highly of the Quartet's ability to perform a range of pieces. Joining PCMS on Thursday, March 19 to play Bartok and Beethoven, The Takács Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982, having formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér while all four were students. The Quartet first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics' Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the quartet in 1993 and violist Geraldine Walther in 2005. Of the original ensemble, violinist Károly Schranz and cellist András Fejér remain.

In its thirty-first season, the Takács Quartet has performed in virtually every music capital in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan, as well as at prestigious festivals, including Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Salzburg and Tanglewood. Also known for its award-winning recordings, the ensemble won the Grammy Award and the Gramophone Award for Best Chamber Performance in 2002 for its two-CD set of Beethoven's three "Rasumovsky" String Quartets, Op. 59, and the Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74, Harp. The Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knights Cross of the Republic of Hungary in 2001.

To learn more about The Takács Quartet, please visit: http://www.takacsquartet.com/

To learn more about the composers, please visit:
Bartok:http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/bartok.html
Beethoven:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven

Buy Tickets!
www.pcmsconcerts.org or 215.569.8080
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Get to Know The Takács Quartet!

Listen and Connect: Listen to the Quartet perform a private recital of music by Haydn and Mendelssohn in NPR's Performance Today Studio 4A:
http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/4a/takacs.html