The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai, and András Fejér, all of whom were students.
Composition History
Britten's String Quartet No. 1 was commissioned by American patroness Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who also commissioned Bartók's Fifth and Schoenberg's Fourth Quartets.
Composition History
Britten's String Quartet No. 2 was specifically written to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Henry Purcell's death, a composer Britten greatly admired.
Composition History
Britten composed his String Quartet No. 1 in the humble surroundings of a tool shed in California, while staying with British piano duo Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson.
Compositional Technique
The finale of Britten's String Quartet No. 2 is a massive Chacony, a type of musical composition based on a repeating harmonic progression, which is considerably longer than the sum of the other two movements.
Composer Biography
Benjamin Britten, the composer, wrote at least six string quartets in his teens under the tutelage of Frank Bridge, a British composer and teacher.
Composition History
Britten's String Quartet No. 3 was intended for the Amadeus Quartet, who gave him a private hearing of it in Aldeburgh, but he died before its public premiere.
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