A change of personnel means major upheaval for any ensemble, and when that ensemble is as finely balanced an organism as a string quartet, the upheaval can assume seismic proportions. Three years ago, Harumi Rhodes took over as the second violin in the Takács Quartet in what seemed from their subsequent concerts to have been a seamless transition, one in which the qualities of ensemble and instinctive musical understanding that set the group apart from almost all their peers seemed to have been effortlessly preserved. Last summer there was another change: Geraldine Walther, who had been the viola player in the Takács for 15 years, retired; her replacement is Richard O’Neill, and the quartet are now making their first tour of the UK with their new lineup.
On the evidence of the first of their two Wigmore recitals, a programme of Haydn, Janáček and Beethoven, the configuration is still settling down. By the very high standards that the Takács have set for themselves over the last 20 years and more, a group to which I owe some of my greatest musical experiences, these performances seemed surprisingly uneven.
What has always been one of the fascinations of the quartet’s interpretations is how their four musical personalities were always distinct yet combined into such an overwhelming whole. Here, though, it seemed as if it was just the first violin, Edward Dusinberre, who was really contributing ideas. Technically the performances were as immaculate as ever, and intermittently everything did snap into sharp focus – powered by shimmering detail, the fugue that ends Haydn’s F minor quartet Op 20 No 5 had the lightest touch, while in the closing pages of Janáček’s second quartet, Intimate Letters, the threads of the whole work were suddenly pulled together to utterly thrilling effect.
But in Beethoven’s A minor quartet Op 132 such transcendent moments were rare. Yes, it was all played with huge assurance and perfect pacing, but the sense of the whole great edifice seemed uncertain, its Heiliger Dankgesang less hymn-like, its rondo finale less comforting than one might have expected, as if the performance had not quite gelled.
• The Takács Quartet repeat this programme at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, on 10 November.
