Matthew J. Palm: Takács Quartet performance inspires.
As thousands enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival on Sunday afternoon, a smaller — but just as rewarded — group of arts fans sought refuge a few blocks away at a slightly calmer event.
I say “slightly calmer” because on the bill inside Rollins College’s Tiedtke Concert Hall were titans of classical music: Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich. And playing the masters were the musicians of the Grammy-winning Takács Quartet, who come with their own excitement.
“An opportunity to hear this group would make anyone clap,” quipped John Sinclair, artistic director of the Bach Festival Society, when his opening remarks were greeted with applause.
Formed in 1975 in Budapest, Hungary, the Takács Quartet is now based at University of Colorado at Boulder. The quartet closed out the Bach society’s annual Visiting Artist Series.
Sunday’s concert also marked one of the final performances of second violinist Károly Schranz, a founding member of the group who will retire in April.
The program choices aptly displayed how different composers can create very different moods with the same four instruments.
First up was Mozart’s Quartet No. 14 in G major. The players leaned into Mozart’s phrasing, both musically and physically, finding the emotion in the composer’s precision.
A highlight: The calland-response section between the rich rumblings of cellist András Fejér and his colleagues, which led to a segment of lively cello movement under the higher strings.
As the musicians wiped their brows, I worried for a moment they were expending all their energy on the opening piece. I needn’t have worried.
Shostokovich’s Quartet No. 11 in F minor promptly turned from Mozart’s merriment to melancholy — then adding a sense of menace. Imbued with drama by the players, the music could have been used in the sort of movie where the heroine approaches the cellar stairs, unaware the masked killer is down there.
Beethoven’s Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor demonstrated how well the four musicians gel as an ensemble as they passed around the memorable phrases and plucked notes.
“Anytime we get to hear a Beethoven string quartet, we’re better people,” Sinclair said in his remarks. I can’t vouch for the moral character of the audience members, but I’m willing to say that after this performance they were inspired and energized.