Ravel, Dutilleux & Hough: String Quartets Takács Quartet

• Stephen Hough (b. 1961): String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres":
• 1 Hough: String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres": I. Au boulevard 03:05
• 2 Hough: String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres": II. Au parc 03:25
• 3 Hough: String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres": III. À l'hôtel 03:47
• 4 Hough: String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres": IV. Au théâtre 04:39
• 5 Hough: String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres": V. À l'église 02:55
• 6 Hough: String Quartet No. 1 "Les Six rencontres": VI. Au marché 04:08
• Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013): Ainsi la nuit:
• 7 Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit: I. Libre et souple – Nocturne 03:26
• 8 Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit: II. Parenthèse I – Miroir d'espace 02:11
• 9 Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit: III. Parenthèse II – Litanies 02:53
• 10 Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit: IV. Parenthèse III – Litanies II 03:56
• 11 Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit: V. Parenthèse IV – Constellations – Nocturne II 03:12
• 12 Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit: VI. Temps suspendu 02:30
• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937): String Quartet in F Major, M. 35:
• 13 Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35: I. Allegro moderato, très doux 07:57
• 14 Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35: II. Assez vif, très rythmé 06:10
• 15 Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35: III. Très lent 08:00
• 16 Ravel: String Quartet in F Major, M. 35: IV. Vif et agité 05:26
• Total Runtime 01:07:40

Info for Ravel, Dutilleux & Hough: String Quartets

Wenn diese Ersteinspielung des Streichquartetts Nr. 1 von Stephen Hough als maßgebend betrachtet werden kann—das Werk ist dem Takács Quartett gewidmet—, so sind die Interpretationen der Quartette von Ravel und Dutilleux nicht weniger bedeutend.

1902 begann Maurice Ravel mit der Arbeit an seinem einzigen Streichquartett, welches er „à mon cher maître Gabriel Fauré“ zueignete. Am 30. April jenes Jahres erlebte er die Uraufführung von Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande und unmittelbar darauf begann er, sich auf den Prix de Rome vorzubereiten—ein Preis, den er trotz wiederholter Versuche zwischen 1900 und 1905 nie gewinnen sollte. Im Herbst nahm er ein Projekt für einen Komponistenkollegen, Frederick Delius, in Angriff, der ihn gebeten hatte, eine Klavier- und Chorpartitur der Oper Margot la Rouge anzufertigen. Als nächstes widmete er sich dem Streichquartett, dessen erste beiden Sätze im Dezember 1902 fertiggestellt wurden, wie einem Vermerk Ravels auf der letzten Seite des zweiten Satzes in der autographen Partitur zu entnehmen ist. Im darauffolgenden Monat reichte er den ersten Satz für einen Kompositionspreis des Pariser Conservatoires ein, wo er noch bei Fauré studierte. Die Jury zeigte sich wenig beeindruckt, und der Conservatoire-Direktor Théodore Dubois reagierte in der für ihn charakteristischen säuerlichen Weise—dem Werk fehle es an Einfachheit. Sogar Ravels Lehrer Fauré hatte zunächst seine Zweifel an dem Werk. Allerdings war er gewillt, dem Quartett eine weitere Chance zu geben und diese Geste berührte den jungen Ravel sehr und führte wohl dazu, dass er es seinem Lehrer widmete. Da Ravel mit dem ersten Satz keinen Preis hatte gewinnen können, war sein Studium am Conservatoire beendet. Erst mehrere Jahre später kehrte er dorthin zurück, allerdings als Prüfer. ...

Takács Quartet

Takács Quartet
The world-renowned Takács Quartet is now entering its forty-ninth season. Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O’Neill (viola) and András Fejér (cello) are excited about the 2023-2024 season that features varied projects including a new work written for them. Nokuthula Ngwenyama composed ‘Flow,’ an exploration and celebration of the natural world. The work was commissioned by nine concert presenters throughout the USA. July sees the release of a new recording of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Dvořák for Hyperion Records, while later in the season the quartet will release works by Schubert including his final quartet in G major. In the Spring of 2024 the ensemble will perform and record piano quintets by Price and Dvořák with long-time chamber music partner Marc-Andre Hamelin.

As Associate Artists at London’s Wigmore Hall the Takács will perform four concerts featuring works by Hough, Price, Janacek, Schubert and Beethoven. During the season the ensemble will play at other prestigious European venues including Berlin, Geneva, Linz, Innsbruck, Cambridge and St. Andrews. The Takács will appear at the Adams Chamber Music Festival in New Zealand. The group’s North American engagements include concerts in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Vancouver, Ann Arbor, Phoenix, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Portland, Cleveland, Santa Fe and Stanford. The ensemble will perform two Bartók cycles at San Jose State University and Middlebury College and appear for the first time at the Virginia Arts Festival with pianist Olga Kern.

The members of the Takács Quartet are Christoffersen Fellows and Artists in Residence at the University of Colorado, Boulder. For the 23-24 season the quartet enter into a partnership with El Sistema Colorado, working closely with its chamber music education program in Denver. During the summer months the Takács join the faculty at the Music Academy of the West, running an intensive quartet seminar.

In 2021 the Takács won a Presto Music Recording of the Year Award for their recordings of string quartets by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, and a Gramophone Award with pianist Garrick Ohlsson for piano quintets by Amy Beach and Elgar. Other releases for Hyperion feature works by Haydn, Schubert, Janáček, Smetana, Debussy and Britten, as well as piano quintets by César Franck and Shostakovich (with Marc-André Hamelin), and viola quintets by Brahms and Dvorák (with Lawrence Power). For their CDs on the Decca/London label, the Quartet has won three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, three Japanese Record Academy Awards, Disc of the Year at the inaugural BBC Music Magazine Awards, and Ensemble Album of the Year at the Classical Brits. Full details of all recordings can be found in the Recordings section of the Quartet's website.

The Takács Quartet is known for its innovative programming. In 2021-22 the ensemble partnered with bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro to premiere new works by Clarice Assad and Bryce Dessner, commissioned by Music Accord. In 2014 the Takács performed a program inspired by Philip Roth’s novel Everyman with Meryl Streep at Princeton, and again with her at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in 2015. They first performed Everyman at Carnegie Hall in 2007 with Philip Seymour Hoffman. They have toured 14 cities with the poet Robert Pinsky, and played regularly with the Hungarian Folk group Muzsikas.

In 2014 the Takács became the first string quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal. In 2012, Gramophone announced that the Takács was the first string quartet to be inducted into its Hall of Fame. The ensemble also won the 2011 Award for Chamber Music and Song presented by the Royal Philharmonic Society in London.

The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. The group received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Members of the Takács Quartet are the grateful beneficiaries of an instrument loan by the Drake Foundation.

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