The award-winning Takács Quartet — which formed in 1975 and still includes founding members András Fejér (cello) and Károly Schranz (violin) — is well into its 42nd season of intimate chamber music performances. This year, Takács Quartet has been on tour performing the string quartets of Beethoven. Many of the concerts have been centered around an all-Beethoven program, and ahead of the tour the group's violinist, Edward Dusinberre, published a book: Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet.
But Ludwig can get moody from time to time, so the group recently set up at the Crystal Ballroom of Manhattan's Empire Hotel to play the opening movement of another piece they've been performing this season: Ravel's String Quartet in F. If the name alone doesn't ring any bells, you may find that you've been acquainted with the piece by way of Wes Anderson’s 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums — it used the quartet’s quirky, pizzicato-heavy second movement in its opening credits.
When Maurice Ravel completed his String Quartet in F — the only one he would ever compose — he must have experienced some conflicting feelings. For starters, the work’s dedicatee, his former teacher Gabriel Fauré was not particularly taken by this particular chamber work. His initial distaste of Ravel’s quartet, particularly the last work, has been well documented. The finale, the teacher felt, was “stunted, badly balanced, in fact a failure.” But while it never feels good to have your work rejected, it did find favor with Claude Debussy, whose own string quartet served as a working model for Ravel.
The entire piece is more colorful than the fancy boxes of crayons you’ll find in the fanciest of elite kindergartens. The Takács Quartet knows this well. For violinist Károly Schranz, the piece provides a break from the serious atmosphere of their Beethoven-centric tour. “I personally like the freshness of the movement,” says Schranz. “Even if it is a little bit melancholy, it somehow is an optimistic piece.” Give it a listen.