At Grusin Music Hall last night to hear the Takacs play Beethoven and Schumann, always a delight, and also a quartet by Bartok, which is, I'm sorry to say, even after many exposures is still screechingly hard on my tender ears (except for the very amusing pizzicato 4th movement). Perhaps some day I'll "get" Bartok, but it's been forty years of hard listening and frankly, I'm not there yet. I'm still hopelessly stranded in melody, harmony, and rhythm.
Meanwhile the chamber music crowd get older and older. Anyone with the least amount of pigment in his/her hair is young; in fact, anyone without a wheel-chair, a walker, an oxygen bottle, or a "minder" is young. Grusin is the place I take my septuagenarian self in order to feel youthful and vigorous. I admit that it's a strategy that doesn't have much of a future, but I'm not thinking long term.
I think Ed and the Takacses should accommodate to their elderly audience. For example, when it comes time for the violin to play solo parts in the highest register, the notes are barely audible. It can't just be me having this problem because half of the geezers in the auditorium have sprouted hearing aids. I think that Ed should make an effort to play the high notes a lot louder. Or possibly, plug in that near-Strad that he wields so well. I'm sure that there's a electronic program designed to amplify the top of the register.
On the other hand, If the Takacs wants to attract a younger audience, there are some changes they might make. For one thing, it's time to give up on the all-black tuxes. Why must they all dress like Johnny Cash? Sequins would be good, or anything glittery. And those shiny black shoes in an age when footwear has become plastic and colorful? What's with that? And how about a little chest hair (or in the case of Gerri the violist, a little bosom)? Bring that Broncos/Buffs/Coors crowd to Grusin!! A new generation of Brahmsophiles. And why must they just sit there like lumps when they could move around the stage a bit. An occasional dance step. Slap that cello, swing those violins from side to side.
Lots of room for exciting innovations in the world of the classical string quartet.
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