Elgar & Beach: Piano Quintets Takács Quartet

• Amy Beach (1867 - 1944): Piano Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 67:
• 1 Beach: Piano Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 67: I. Adagio - Allegro moderato 09:13
• 2 Beach: Piano Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 67: II. Adagio espressivo 09:59
• 3 Beach: Piano Quintet in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 67: III. Allegro agitato - Adagio come prima - Presto 08:39
• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): Piano Quintet, Op. 84:
• 4 Elgar: Piano Quintet, Op. 84: I. Moderato – Allegro 13:28
• 5 Elgar: Piano Quintet, Op. 84: II. Adagio 11:31
• 6 Elgar: Piano Quintet, Op. 84: III. Andante – Allegro 10:45
• Total Runtime 01:03:35

Info for Elgar & Beach: Piano Quintets

Amy Beach’s piano quintet proved a deservedly popular success in its early years. It makes a compelling—and surprising—match for Elgar’s own piano quintet: a late work contemporary with the cello concerto, and which inhabits the same emotional landscape.

The piano quintet is a form that came of age in the second half of the nineteenth century. After Schumann’s pioneering work of 1842—the piece that established the combination of piano and string quartet in the chamber music repertoire—others soon followed, notably Brahms (completed in 1864), Franck (1879) and Dvořák (1887, his second piano quintet; an earlier work was written in 1872). Others included two each by Gernsheim, Goldmark and Widor, and single works by Berwald, Herzogenberg, Saint-Saëns, Sinding and Stanford. Younger composers to tackle the form included Coleridge-Taylor (1893), Dohnányi (1895 and 1914), Fauré (1905 and 1921), Novák (1896), Pfitzner (1908), Reger (1898 and 1902), Respighi (1902), Suk (1893), Turina (1907), Wolf-Ferrari (1900) and the young Bartók (1904). ...

"By way of the imposing nature of the resources—string quartet and piano—the approach to the genre is inevitably one of an epic nature, almost orchestral in its bold sound and texture, fluctuating between the intellectual demands of the symphony and the ‘competition’ of the grand concerto. Beach’s magisterial work, with its hugely demanding piano part, its plethora of thematic material and its coherent handling of form, meets both these conceptual demands (and which Ohlsson and the Takács Quartet serve with vivid colours and a vital energy) … the slow movement, one of Elgar’s greatest, is played with true profundity … Ohlsson and the Takács are to be congratulated for the warmth of their interpretation and for their ability to encompass the challenging range of Elgar’s complex moods" (Gramophone)

"This excellent release celebrates two glorious pieces for piano quintet with performances of unabashed élan. The Takács Quartet are renowned for the warmth and drama of their playing and could not be a better fit for such full-blooded works, while Garrick Ohlsson, a noted Chopin exponent, proves a similarly fine match in this generous, lyrical interpretation … with excellent recording quality throughout, this is in every respect an outstanding disc" (BBC Music Magazine)

Takács Quartet
Garrick Ohlsson, piano

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 Elgar & Beach: Piano Quintets