Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartets Takács Quartet

• Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 - 1847): String Quartet in E-Flat Major, H-U 277:
• 1 Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-Flat Major, H-U 277: I. Adagio ma non troppo 04:38
• 2 Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-Flat Major, H-U 277: II. Allegretto 03:45
• 3 Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-Flat Major, H-U 277: III. Romanze 06:04
• 4 Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-Flat Major, H-U 277: IV. Allegro molto vivace 05:42
• Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847): String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80, MWV R37:
• 5 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80, MWV R37: I. Allegro vivace assai – Presto 07:13
• 6 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80, MWV R37: II. Allegro assai 04:16
• 7 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80, MWV R37: III. Adagio 07:25
• 8 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80, MWV R37: IV. Finale. Allegro molto 05:41
• String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, MWV R22:
• 9 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, MWV R22: I. Adagio – Allegro vivace 08:13
• 10 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, MWV R22: II. Adagio non lento 07:46
• 11 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, MWV R22: III. Intermezzo. Allegretto con moto – Allegro di molto 05:06
• 12 Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, MWV R22: IV. Presto – Adagio non lento 09:21
• Total Runtime 01:15:10

Info for Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartets

Felix Mendelssohns leidenschaftlich bewegtes f-Moll-Quartett war die äußerst persönliche Reaktion auf den Tod seiner Schwester im Jahre 1847, nur wenige Monate bevor er selbst starb. Das Takács Quartet rahmt es mit ebenso engagierten Interpretationen von einem sehr viel früheren Werk sowie einem wichtigen Beitrag zu diesem Genre von Fanny Mendelssohn ein.

Fanny Hensel (geb. Mendelssohn, 1805-1847), die ältere Schwester Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys, war selbst auch eine produktive Komponistin und virtuose Pianistin. Allerdings ließ ihr die Kombination aus Geschlecht und Standeszugehörigkeit nicht wirklich die Möglichkeit, eine professionelle Karriere einzuschlagen. In dem konservativen preußischen Umfeld der 1820er Jahre wurde von Frauen nicht erwartet, dass sie es mit ihren männlichen Kollegen im Bereich der Komposition aufnehmen könnten, und als höhere Tochter des Berliner Großbürgertums wurde Fanny Mendelssohn darauf vorbereitet, zu heiraten und die private Rolle einer Hausfrau zu spielen, anstatt, wie ihr Bruder, zu einer international gefeierten Berühmtheit zu avancieren. (1829 heiratete sie den Hofmaler Wilhelm Hensel und vermied öffentliche Auftritte als Pianistin. Ihre Kreativität lebte sie stattdessen mit der Organisation von Konzerten aus, die alle 14 Tage in der Berliner Familienresidenz stattfanden, wobei sie von ihrem Klavier aus einen Chor dirigierte, mit dem sie Chorwerke von J. S. Bach, Konzertversionen von Gluck-Opern sowie Kammermusik aufführen konnte.) Nichtsdestotrotz hatte Fanny Mendelssohn, wie ihr Bruder, eine äußerst rigorose musikalische Ausbildung erhalten, die nicht nur wöchentliche Kompositionsstunden bei Carl Friedrich Zelter (der Direktor der Berliner Singakademie) umfasste, sondern auch eine gründliche Auseinandersetzung mit dem vergeistigten Kontrapunkt Bachs (sie komponierte Dutzende von heute größtenteils verschollenen Fugen, und erhielt von ihrem Bruder den Kosenamen „Thomascantor“) sowie Klavierunterricht bei führenden Musikern der Zeit, darunter Ludwig Berger (ein Schüler von Muzio Clementi), Johann Nepomuk Hummel (seinerzeit ein Wunderkind, das Mozart gratis unterrichtet hatte) und der liebenswürdige Böhme Ignaz Moscheles (ein Vertrauter Beethovens). ...

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.

Booklet for Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartets