New York Classical Review

The interpersonal dynamics of a professional string quartet have intrigued listeners ever since Joseph Haydn pioneered the genre two and a half centuries ago. How do four top-drawer musicians, with years of expensive education and, often, egos to match, manage to put it all aside and “play as one”?

Memoirs by members of famous ensembles, offering a peek inside the mystery, have sold well. Now there is a work for string quartet that tackles the same question, but with music and choreography instead of words.

Clarice Assad’s NEXUS, which received its New York premiere in the Takács Quartet’s concert Wednesday night in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, had the players literally in motion, circling each other onstage like planets trying to form a solar system. But what the Brazilian-born composer called this group’s “visceral, whole-body approach to musical expression” was in evidence even when they were conventionally seated for quartets by Haydn and Debussy.

The galloping physicality in Haydn’s Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, no. 3, earned the piece its traditional nickname, “The Rider.” The Takács players kept it light in the first movement, gracefully shaping the fleet, airy phrases and not really digging in until the knotty development section. The visionary, long-breathed Largo assai unfolded in spacious realms of chromatic harmonies.

While giving the Menuetto its traditional courtly poise, the players responded animatedly to the movement’s contrasts of legato and staccato. The ensemble, founded 51 years ago in Budapest (though now based in Colorado), brought a full measure of Hungarian fire to the agitated finale, with first violinist Edward Dusinberre charging repeatedly to his instrument’s top range; by the exuberant G-major coda, however, the sheer pleasure of quartet playing was in the saddle. Only a few clappers in the audience were fooled by Haydn’s deceptive double ending.

The word “nexus” has acquired various meanings in English lately, but in the original Latin it signifies “the tie that binds.”  Composed last year specifically for the Takács Quartet, Assad’s NEXUS evoked that tie both aurally and visually. Dusinberre introduced the piece with a few words to the audience, then departed, leaving cellist András Fejér alone onstage. Fejér—the only remaining original member of the quartet, who has announced his retirement at the end of this season—waited half a minute or so, then wafted a questing solo into the air to begin the first movement, titled “(Dis)Connect.”

One by one, the other musicians walked onstage, playing themes that asserted their individuality: first Dusinberre, then violist Richard O’Neill, and finally second violinist Harumi Rhodes with a very un-second-fiddlish, soaring cadenza. The players encountered each other and formed alliances, until the sun at the center—Fejér—summoned them to play together. The players celebrated their new-found unity with a startling foot stamp that brought a laugh from the audience.

The second movement, “Connect,” was a virtual catalogue of ensemble virtuosity, the sort of things one seeks out a Grammy-winning quartet to hear: sweeping violin lines in finely-tuned octaves, syncopated start-stop phrases smartly executed, pizzicato passages rocketing around the group.

By the final movement, “Synchronization,” however, centrifugal forces were pulling on the members of the ensemble. Rigor was slipping into routine; in motion again around the stage, some players stayed connected, while others drifted to the back of the stage and silence, leaving only violinist Rhodes to pronounce her benediction on the whole enterprise.

Happily, the real-life Takács Quartet has not reached that final stage, and rewarded the audience after intermission with a lively rendition of Debussy’s one and only work in their genre, the Quartet in G minor. That title was the giveaway: this famously innovative composer and Wagner antagonist had a not-so-secret love of the 18^th-century classics, both French and German, and citing the key in the title was a nod in their direction.

The work’s four movements, and the overall character of each, were straight out of Haydn as well. However, the details and harmonic adventures were Debussy all the way. The first movement’s ever-changing textures ranged from bold blocks of sound to filaments intertwining, all of it vividly rendered by the Takács players. The airy scherzo rippled with well-synchronized pizzicato and staccato.

In the Andantino—a non-French tempo marking, another rare departure for Debussy—muted strings spoke in short, breathless phrases, then emerged and receded in intimate dialogue. The finale began in understatement, but grew steadily to a bold, assertive finish. With Assad’s piece echoing in the mind, one could appreciate both the individuality and the coordination of the Takács’s superb players.

As an encore, just for fun, the quartet played a scintillating piece of ensemble virtuosity, the Allegro molto from Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Quartet in C major, Op. 59, no. 3.

Carnegie Hall presents the Danish String Quartet, with the Danish National Girls’ Choir, performing works by Schubert, Nielsen, Caroline Shaw, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, David Lang and others, 7:30 p.m. April 17 in Zankel Hall. carnegiehall.org