Takács Quartet with Pianist Marc-André Hamelin September 18, 2008

Returning to the Lakewood Stage

Grammy Award Winning Takács Quartet

with Pianist, Marc-André Hamelin

The Lakewood Cultural Center is pleased to announce the return engagement of the Takács Quartet, accompanied this year by pianist Marc-André Hamelin in a performance of Schumann’s Piano Quintet at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 18 in the intimate 310-seat theater (470 S. Allison Parkway at Wadsworth and Alameda). Tickets are $26.00 for adults and are available by calling 303-987-7845, online at www.lakewood.org or at the Lakewood Cultural Center Box Office, 470 S. Allison Parkway. Senior, student and group discounts available. Free parking on site.

Recognized as one of the front ranking chamber ensembles in the world, the Grammy Award Winning Takács Quartet, Edward Dusinberre, violin, Károly Schranz, violin, Geraldine Walther, viola, and András Fejér, cello, creates performances of virtuosic technique, intense immediacy and consistently burnished tone. The program also includes Bartok’s String Quartet No. 2 and Mozart’s String Quartet in D major K.575.

Montréal native Marc-André Hamelin is internationally renowned for his musical virtuosity and refined pianism. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Kevin Volans' Piano Concerto for his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, led by Michael Tilson Thomas; Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 for a return to the Detroit Symphony with Kwame Ryan; Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 with Sir Neville Marriner and the Montreal Symphony; Messiaen's "Turangalila" with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Sir Andrew Davis; Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Vancouver Symphony led by Tania Miller, and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 to close the Kansas City Symphony's season with Michael Stern. 

This spring Mr. Hamelin's was the recipient of the 2008 Juno Award Winner in the Classical Album of the Year (solo or chamber ensemble) category for Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano. Under exclusive contract with Hyperion Records, his recent two-disc set of Haydn Piano Sonatas was named on "Best of 2007" lists in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and the New Yorker magazine, and is nominated for a "Best Solo Instrumental" Grammy.

Additional awards and recognition include a double nomination in 2001 for the epic Busoni Concerto with the CBSO under Mark Elder and the Chopin-Godowsky, Mr. Hamelin was the only classical artist to play live at the Grammy Awards. He received another Grammy nomination in 2002 for his recording featuring the works of Alkan. His double album of the complete Chopin-Godowsky Etudes won the 2000 Gramophone Instrumental Award. In 2005 Mr. Hamelin was honored to be made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec and in December 2006, he was awarded the Preis der Deutsche Schallplattenkritik, in special acknowledgement of his complete body of recorded works.
Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet performs ninety concerts a year worldwide, performing throughout Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea. The quartet members are Associate Artists at the South Bank Centre in London, performing several concerts there each year. In 2008-2009 the quartet will build its London programs around the music of Schumann, culminating in a recording of the piano quintet with Marc-André Hamelin in May 2009. Other highlights of the 2008-2009 season include the world premiere and performances throughout Europe of a quartet written for them by Wolfgang Rihm, three concerts to celebrate the re-opening of New York’s Alice Tully Hall, featuring the complete Bartok Cycle and a tour to Japan and Korea in June 2009. In a North American tour the quartet will continue its collaboration with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas and singer Marta Sebestyen.

The Quartet's multi-award winning recordings include the Late Quartets by Beethoven which in 2005 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 middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another Gramophone Award, a Chamber Music of America Award and two further awards from the Japanese Recording Academy. Of their performances and recordings of the Late Quartets, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote “The Takács might play this repertoire better than any quartet of the past or present.”

In 2005 the Takács Quartet signed a contract with Hyperion Records, for whom their first recording, of Schubert's D804 and D810 was released in 2006. A disc featuring Brahms' Piano Quintet with Stephen Hough was released to great acclaim in November 2007. Brahms Quartets Op. 51 and Op. 67 will be released in fall, 2008, and a disc featuring the Schumann Piano Quintet with Marc-André Hamelin will be released in 2009. The Quartet has also made sixteen recordings for the Decca label since 1988 of works by Beethoven, Bartok, Borodin, Brahms, Chausson, Dvorak, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Smetana.

The quartet is known for innovative programming. In 2007 it performed with Academy Award–winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Everyman” in Carnegie Hall, inspired by the Philip Roth novel. In May 2008 the quartet performed a new piece commissioned by the South Bank by James Macmillan. The Takács has performed a music and poetry program on a fourteen city US tour with the poet Robert Pinsky. Current commissions include works by Wolfgang Rihm and Daniel Kellogg.

The Lakewood Cultural Center 2008 - 2009 Performing Arts Season is generously supported by Aura Spa and Wellness Center at the Sheraton Denver West by the Rocky Mountain News – Closer to Home. Programs are made possible in part through funding from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) – Metro Denver’s unique commitment to its nonprofit art, scientific and cultural institutions and The Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado – Supporting community nonprofits while highlighting the contributions of gay men and lesbians.

This performance of the Takács Quartet is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.