Chamber Music Concerts / 1250 Siskiyou Blvd / Ashland, OR / 97520-5080
Press Release – For immediate publication
Contact: Jody Schmidt, Executive Director – 541-552-6154; schmidtj@sou.edu
February 22, 2008
Chamber Music Concerts Presents the World-Class Takács String Quartet
Each season, Chamber Music Concerts (CMC) presents a special concert by a chamber group acknowledged as one of the best in the world. This year, that concert features the internationally-renowned Takács String Quartet. Critics rave about the Takács, with comments like “The consummate artistry of the Takács is simply breathtaking†from The London Guardian, and “The Takács Quartet stands at the peak of its powers—the peak of its profession†from the Boston Globe. CMC will present the Takács Quartet on Friday, March 14th at 8:00 p.m. at the SOU Music Recital Hall. Please call 541-552-6154 for tickets, which are $40/$35. The evening features an all-Beethoven program: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59 no. 3 “Rasumovsky;†String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130; and the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. The Takács String Quartet’s concert is exclusively sponsored by Jim Collier. More information may be found at CMC’s web site, www.sou.edu/cmc.
CMC’s audience is in for a real treat with the all-Beethoven program—as the Cleveland Plain Dealer stated, “The Takács might play this repertoire [Beethoven] better than any other quartet in the past or present.†Recognized as one of the world’s premiere string quartets, the Takács Quartet plays with a virtuosic technique, intense immediacy and consistently burnished tone. The ensemble explores its repertoire with intellectual curiosity and passion, creating performances that are probing, revealing and constantly engaging. The Quartet has been described as having “warmth, exuberance, buoyancy, a teasing subtlety, unanimity of purpose without compromising the individual personalities of each performer, a blossoming tone, and above all the instinct to play from inside the music…” The Takács Quartet is based in Boulder, Colorado, where it has been in residence at the University of Colorado since 1983.
The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet has also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. In addition to its residency at the University of Colorado, the ensemble is also a Resident Quartet at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and in 2005, its members were named Associate Artists of the South Bank Center in London. In 2001, The Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary.
Now entering its 31st season, the Takács Quartet has performed in virtually every music capital in North America, Europe, Australasia and Japan, as well as at prestigious festivals, including Aspen, Berlin, Cheltenham, City of London, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig Holstein and Tanglewood. The ensemble is also known for its award-winning recordings on the Decca label, including, most recently, its recording of the complete Beethoven Quartet Cycle which has been awarded a Grammy Award, two Gramophone Awards, the BBC Music Disc of the Year Award (late quartets), the Classical Brits Award for Ensemble Album of the Year (late quartets) and three Japan Record Academy Chamber Music Awards.
Recent notable Takács Quartet appearances worldwide have included performances of the Beethoven cycle in New York, Cleveland, London, Los Angeles, Paris and Sydney; the Bartok cycle in Cleveland, London, Madrid, Seville, Valencia, New York, Berkeley and Tokyo; the Brahms cycle in London; the Schubert cycle in London, Lisbon and cities in Italy, the Netherlands and Spain; concerts in Japan; a 14-city U.S. tour with the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky; and a collaboration with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas in a series of joint concerts exploring the connections between traditional Hungarian folk melodies and the works of Bartok and Kodaly.
In addition to the concert, there will be a free pre-concert lecture by musicologist Ed Wight at 7 p.m. in the second-floor Choir Room of the SIU Music Building. For more information about the Takács Quartet, please visit their web site at www.takacsquartet.com.
