Malvern Concert Club: Takács Quartet

Edward Dusinberre violin
Harumi Rhodes violin
Richard O’Neill viola
András Fejér cello

Mozart String Quartet No.15 in D minor, K.421

Dutilleux String Quartet Ainsi La Nuit

Smetana String Quartet No.1 in E minor From My Life

The Takács Quartet has long been renowned for the vitality of its interpretations. Formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Hungary, they are now based at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where they are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows. They perform eighty concerts a year worldwide.

Multiple award winners, the Quartet featured in the BBC television series “Being Beethoven” last year, and also released a CD for Hyperion of piano quartets by Amy Beach and Elgar to add to their lengthy discography, which includes the Smetana quartet listed here. They are making two recordings for Hyperion, one featuring the last quartets of Haydn, the other pairing two masterpieces from the first decade of the 20th century: Bartók’s Quartet No.1 and Berg’s Opus 3.

In 2012 Gramophone announced that the Takács was the only string quartet to be inducted into its first Hall of Fame, along with such legendary artists as Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein and Dame Janet Baker. The ensemble also won the 2011 Award for Chamber Music from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London. In 2014 the Takács became the first string quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal, an award which recognises major international artists who have a long association with the Hall.

With the agreement of Barbara Thomas, the Committee are proud to dedicate this concert to the memory of her late husband, Peter, our former Secretary who did so much for the Club.