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Published at 1:48pm
Published on 7/24/08
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Philip Roth and Franz Schubert are two names you would never expect to encounter on the same bill, but there’ll be no discordant notes in a concert by the celebrated Takács Quartet at Zankel Hall. For one night, on October 23, the quartet will share the stage with award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, presenting a mix of literature and music that could truly be described as novel.
Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of Takács, conceived the program when he read Roth’s 2006 Everyman shortly after the group recorded an emotional rendition of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden,” in May ’06. Near the book’s conclusion, Roth’s nameless protagonist—a successful commercial artist haunted by his mortality—faces a difficult surgery.
“Just before the guy dies, he has this memory of being a kid,” Dusinberre says. “This memory makes him feel youthful and revitalized, so that he can’t believe anything bad is going to happen to him in surgery. And in fact, he dies during the surgery. That fear of death creeping up on you unawares is very much the theme of the ‘Death and the Maiden’ slow movement.”
In fashioning a concert around passages from Everyman, Dusinberre emphasized the musical qualities of Roth’s prose. “The three scenes I chose all take place in a cemetery,” he says. “There’s the sense of teasing out a musical theme: You present it one way, and then you present it another. If I were analyzing those scenes, it would be very similar to analyzing the way a composer treats a particular theme in a piece.”
Rather than anachronistically pairing those passages with Schubert, Dusinberre surrounded them with moody pieces by contemporary composers Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass. Roth, a music lover who had attended several concerts by the Takács Quartet, gave the project his blessing, and suggested Hoffman as narrator. For the second half of the concert, Hoffman will read the Matthias Claudius poem “Death and the Maiden,” followed by the Schubert work it inspired.
This isn’t the first time the Takács Quartet has broken with convention. The group has previously toured with folk ensemble Muszikás in a collaboration inspired by Bela Bartók, whose challenging quartets are a Takács specialty. Dusinberre trusts that the audience will once again embrace the spirit of adventure. “This program is a bit like doing a Bartók cycle,” he says, laughing. “Anyone who buys a ticket, they’re a bit mad in the right sort of way.
The Takács Quartet plays Zankel Hall Oct 23.
