Keith Saunders
The quartet explored the nuances of Mozart and Brahms.
Madison music lovers experienced a glorious treat when the Takács Quartet appeared with pianist Garrick Ohlsson at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Dec. 3.
The varied program opened with Mozart’s Quartet in D, K. 575. The Takács players brought a wonderful plasticity and flow, in a truly gorgeous performance.
One of my criteria for a string quartet is how well one can hear the viola. I remember hearing this group some years back and admiring the confident playing of Roger Tapping, who was violist for 10 years. His replacement since 2005 has been Geraldine Walther, who continues beautifully projecting the viola lines within the full ensemble, balancing without disrupting. This dimension brought particular beauty for me, in the Mozart as well as in the subsequent works.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets are the personal diaries of his later years. No. 11 in F minor is one of several dedicated to quartet players he worked with. It is full of personal messages and allusions, and even with a roadmap of the seven designated sections, it is not always easy to follow the transitions from brooding to anxiety and anger that pull the work along a dark and terribly powerful path. Carefully sculpting the changing moods, the Takács players drew the listener through stark shifts in emotion.
After the intermission, pianist Garrick Ohlsson augmented the quartet. Ohlsson has been active as a solo and chamber player since the early 1970s. Lanky and handsome, he still seems as youthful as ever, if more refined as a chamber musician.
Ohlsson joined the group for Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34. Brahms’ music has always impressed me as burly and muscular, especially when a piano is involved. I’ve seen many musicians in powerful performances of this work, and the Takács players delivered strength when appropriate. Ohlsson was a touch more reticent than might have been expected, and the string players allowed us to hear more dimensions of the work than usual. They discovered previously unstressed subtleties, exploring them to often magical effect, notably in the slow movement.
This concert was simply wonderful, surely one of the very best of the year.
