Music and Dance Reviews : Takacs Quartet Performs at Caltech

The Takacs Quartet--originally from Budapest, now in residence at the University of Colorado and at London’s Barbican Center--reconfirmed Sunday in Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium troubling impressions left by its appearance at the Ford Theater last summer.

First heard in the Southland a decade ago, when it seemed a formidable addition to the international chamber music scene, the quartet now gives indication of having become a one-man band, that one being first violinist Gabor Takacs-Nagy.

It would be a matter of concern even if Takacs-Nagy dominated through sheer musical strength. But his playing is not only usually louder than that of his colleagues, it is also frequently raw in tone and out of tune.

Haydn’s “Sunrise” Quartet, which opened Sunday’s Coleman Concerts program, found the composer’s wit and energy dulled by laggard tempos, coy dynamics (soft prevailed) and a seeming prohibition against punching up, or even pointing out, the familiar work’s quirky accents and rhythms.

The inherently low-key sentiments of Schubert’s A-minor Quartet are difficult to project under the best of performing circumstances. When the score is burdened with rhythmic slackness and intonational slips (the first violinist’s, again), as on this occasion, listening to it becomes a chore.

In Bartok’s Fourth Quartet, where individual display is both possible and necessary, one could admire the rich, focused tones of second violinist Karoly Schranz, violist Gabor Ormai and cellist Andras Fejer. But, again, their leader’s roughly overbearing presence too often compromised ensemble cohesion--and Bartok’s flights of imagination.

An encore, the slow movement of Haydn’s Quartet in G, Opus 77, No. 1, brought the best-blended playing of the day, with Fejer’s buttery cello a particular source of pleasure.