Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet - Couverture rigide

Dusinberre, Edward

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0571317138 ISBN 13 : 9780571317134

Editeur : Faber & Faber, 2016

Synopsis

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartets Beethoven's sixteen string quartets are some of the most extraordinary and challenging pieces of music ever written. They have inspired artists of all kinds - not only musicians - and have been subject to endless reinterpretation. What does it feel like to be a musician taking on these iconic works? And how do the four string players who make up a quartet interact, both musically and personally? The Takacs is one of the world's pre-eminent string quartets. Performances of Beethoven have shaped their work together for over forty years. Using the history of both the Takacs Quartet and the Beethoven quartets as the backbone to his story, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takacs since 1993, recounts the exhilarating challenge of tackling these pieces. Beethoven for a Later Age takes the reader inside the daily life of a quartet, vividly showing the necessary creative tension between individual and group expression and how four people can enjoy making music together over a long period of time. The key, the author argues, is in balancing continuity with change and experimentation - a theme that lies at the heart of Beethoven's remarkable compositions. No other composer has posed so many questions about the form and emotional content of a string quartet, and come up with so many different answers. In an accessible style, suitable for novices and chamber music enthusiasts alike, Dusinberre illuminates the variety and inherent contradictions of Beethoven's quartets, composed against the turbulent backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath, and shows that engaging with this radical music continues to be as invigorating now as it was for its first performers and audiences.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Edward Dusinberre is first violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet. The Takács' recordings of Beethoven's string quartets, released on the Decca label and widely considered one of the most significant recent recording of the repertoire, have earned numerous awards world-wide, including a Grammy, two Gramophone Awards, and BBC Music Magazine's 'CD of the Year'. Their performance cycle of the Beethoven quartets at the South Bank Centre in London was chosen for the Royal Philharmonic Society's Chamber Music and Song Award for best performance in 2010. Dusinberre's interest in how to present chamber music in the most engaging manner has taken a number of forms. In 2007 he devised a programme around readings from Philip Roth's novel Everyman, combining these meditations on mortality with music by Schubert, Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass. The Takács Quartet performed this programme with Philip Seymour Hoffman at Carnegie Hall, New York, and with Meryl Streep at Princeton. Dusinberre frequently introduces music from the stage, combining a lively mixture of historical, biographical and musicological material, and he has written articles exploring the Takács Quartet's ongoing engagement with the Beethoven quartets for the Guardian, the Financial Times, and Strad magazine.The Beethoven quartets are a central pillar of the Takács Quartet's concert repertoire. They will perform complete cycles in the USA and London in the 2016/17 season.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Faber & Faber
• Date d'édition: 2016
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0571317138
• ISBN 13: 9780571317134
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 272
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible