On Sunday, December 8, 2024, at 3:00 pm the Friends welcomed the Takács Quartet back to our concert platform at the Vancouver Playhouse. Currently one of the most internationally acclaimed chamber music groups playing live concerts around the world, this was their 29th performance for us since the first in 1982. Only one original member of the quartet remains from that first concert, cellist András Fejér, but the Takács Quartet still represents the Hungarian tradition and sound of string quartet playing.
This Sunday’s concert was beset with special challenges due to other major entertainment events in downtown Vancouver. However, while Vancouver streets teemed with more than the usual number of pedestrians, car traffic did not seem heavier than usual – although parking was scarce and more expensive than usual.
The many people who did join us on Sunday afternoon heard a fabulous performance. The programme started with Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Opus 54 No. 2. The elegance and wit of Haydn’s music were brought to the fore by the light, lyrical touch offered by the musicians in their approach to this score. Their delightful blend and balance gave the music a sweetness and lilt that is ideally suited to such Classical 18th Century fare.
We ensured that programme notes for concertgoers were available at the Friends website well in advance of the concert. Nonetheless, first violinist Edward Dusinberre gave a personal introduction from the stage to Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 2. His comments did not repeat what was in the programme but rather added a personal – and welcome – angle to help people listen to and understand what might otherwise have sounded complicated or unusual.
After his chat, the playing by all four musicians (first violinist Dusinberre, second violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist András Fejér) was staggeringly good. Close harmonies and occasionally jagged rhythms were mixed with melodic evocations of historic English composer Henry Purcell’s music, as intended by Britten.
Once the music finished and everybody took a collective breath, the audience burst into rapturous applause. Several people said during intermission that they had enjoyed that Britten performance far more than they had expected, partly because of Mr. Dusinberre’s remarks, but more because of the deeply felt and powerfully beautiful performance by the quartet.
Completing the programme was Ludwig van Beethoven’s last quartet, No. 16 in F Major, Opus 135, written close to the end of the composer’s life, and the final installment of his outstanding quartet cycle. The Takács Quartet played this music with excitement and spontaneity, as well as a fantastic blend and balance. How they achieve a sound that is both fresh with inventive excitement and simultaneously carefully refined with structural cohesion is one secret ingredient in the alchemy of this justly celebrated ensemble. We could not fail to reward such artistry with less than an enthusiastic standing ovation. Four acoustic string-instrument playing musicians had galvanized our afternoon, regardless of what sounds would excite the thousands in BC Place Stadium seeing and hearing a music artist in a different genre later that night.
Now we head into the year-ending festive season with the Takács Quartet’s brilliant Beethoven interpretation echoing in our ears and brains. And we look forward to a New Year that includes more Beethoven in February (an early piano trio played by the Han Finckel Setzer Trio) and April (another late string quartet played by the Isidore Quartet). I hope you will join us for those and for the rest of our outstanding concerts that are part of our 2024-2025 season.
Thank you for your ongoing interest in our concerts. Like other performing arts organisations, the future of Friends of Chamber Music depends on your support. During this time of annual appeals, please consider buying tickets to our upcoming six fabulous concerts this spring, whether for yourself or as gifts for others.
The Friends organisation is run by a group of dedicated volunteers and has no paid employees. We all do this for the love of live chamber music. In these post-COVID years we need your help, first, by coming to concerts, and second, by spreading the word about these unique live music experiences within your social circles. And finally, please consider helping us by joining the donors who choose to give funds as a further vote of confidence in our present and future of presenting great live music in Vancouver.
Through various published neuro-research studies we have learned that listening to live acoustic music can benefit people’s health. We can all agree with that. Please join us in making possible such sweet salves for the soul, continuing to make a prescription for live chamber music played at the highest level a part of all our lives.
