Takacs Quartet at Samueli Theater

2013 is the centennial of Benjamin Britten’s birth, and a highlight of this program is sure to be String Quartet #3 by the British composer, one of the central figures of 20th century music.

“We enjoy playing Schubert’s late quartets with Benjamin Britten’s final quartet. Both works are influenced by the voice; Schubert’s drawing on the song Gretchen am Spinnrade while Britten quotes from his opera Death in Venice. Both works explore the power of music to transcend life’s tribulations. Haydn invented the string quartet with his extraordinary innovations of voicing, dialogue and form. His string quartets are often programmed at the beginning of the concert where they too easily become a warm-up for both the players and the audience. This program finishes with one of the Opus 76s, taking the string quartet genre back to its very beginnings.” Takács Quartet