Arts & Events

The renowned Takács Quartet returned to Berkeley’s Hertz Hall on Saturday-Sunday, December 7-8, to perform all six of Bela Bartók’s String Quartets. Appearing under the auspices of Cal Performances, the Takács Quartet played Bartók’s string quartets 1,3,5 on Saturday evening, and the composer’s quartets 2,4,6 on Sunday afternoon. Due to Saturday evening’s stormy weather, I did not attend that concert; but I was present for Sunday’s 3:00 PM concert. The Takács Quartet is comprised of violinists Edward Dusinberre and Harumi Rhodes, cellist András Fejér, and violist Geraldine Walter. Only András Fejér remains of the founders of the original Takács Quartet, which began in Budapest in 1975. 

First on Sunday’s program was Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 17. This quartet is in three movements. It began on Sunday with first violinist Edward Dusinberre making a leap upward followed by a long-held note and a chromatic descent. The other instruments joined in and commented upon this opening figure. A second theme was introduced, and the development section returned with variations on the principal theme. The middle movement, marked Allegro molto capriccioso, gave notice of Bartók’s intensive study of Hungarian folk music. The Takács Quartet gave this music a performance of amazing rhythmic ferocity, with a coda that approached the limits of the speed of sound. By contrast, the final movement, marked Lento, was a slow, gloomy statement of grief and despair, perhaps in response to World War I, during which Bartók composed this string quartet. 

For me, the highlight of Sunday’s concert was Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4. Composed in 1928, the 4th quartet employs the “arch” form often favoured by Bartók, in which the outer movements frame a pair of mercurial scherzo movements, which in turn enclose at the work’s center a slow movement of ravishing beauty. The opening Allegro features a main theme first heard in the cello, played here gorgeously by András Fejér, whom I like to think of as the heart and soul of the Takács Quartet. The second movement is played entirely with muted strings. The third movement features a lengthy cello solo, brilliantly performed here by András Fejér. The fourth movement is played entirely with pizzicato, including the slapping of the strings against the fingerboard, a novelty Bartók was one of the first composers to use. The fifth and final movement, marked Allegro molto, takes up again the main thematic material of the first movement, and like that movement, proceeds at dizzying speed, ending with six Cs in unison and octave to bring this work to a close.  

After intermission, the Takács Quartet performed Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6, which was composed between August and November of 1939, when the outbreak of World War II seemed imminent. It is a gloomy work, reflecting not only the composer’s pessimistic view of European politics but also his grave concern over his wife’s illness. She died before Christmas that same year.
The 6th quartet begins with a bleak melody from the viola, played hauntingly here by Geraldine Walter. The marking for all four movements of this quartet is the word “mesto,” meaning sad. This opening theme reappears in every movement, and it it becomes the main theme of the final movement. The second movement offers a diabolical march theme with more than a touch of irony. The third movement offers a burletta or burlesque full of bitter irony; and the fourth and final movement slows everything down to a sad, dejected end performed here with András Fejér’s cello offering final, mournful pizzicato notes. In spite of (or because of) this work’s despair, It is a profound human testament, and is recognised as such by lovers of Bartók’s string quartets. In the hands of the superb Takács Quartet, it cannot fail to move us.