Brahms - Piano Quartet No 3 in C minor

with Gábor Takács-Nagy

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Intermediate 3 lessons (1h 13m) Mobile, Tablet + Desktop

Gabor Takacs-Nagy was born in Budapest where he started learning the violin at the age of eight. He attended the Franz Liszt Academy, after which he studied with Nathan Milstein. from 1975 to 1992, he was founding member and first violin of the Takacs Quartet which became world-renowned as one of the finest string quartets of its day.

An inspiring and perceptive teacher, Gabor Takacs-Nagy chamber music masterclass are greatly in demand. Since 1977, he was been Professor of String Quartet at the Geneva Conservatoire and he regularly gives masterclasses in various academies throughout the world.

In this masterclass, he focuses on a magnificent and tragic work by Johannes Brahms: the Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 60, composed for violin, viola, cello and piano, also known as Werther quartet. In Goethe's work, Werther is a very sensitive and creative young man, becoming depressed when he sees the woman he loves marrying another. Indeed, Brahms's feelings for Clara, Robert Schumann's wife, were vain, and this love could very well be compared to Werther's story.

In 1855, he started to compose three piano quartets, and completed two of them. The last one, the most personal and the deepest, was put apart. Young Brahms's feelings are exposed, the twenty-two year-old artist torn between his admiration for Robert Schumann, dying, and his impossible love. In 1868, he is not sure whether he should or not release this work that reminds him of such events of his past. Thankfully, time heals all wounds, and the work was completed in 1875, and performed for the first time 20 years after its first draft.

Students: Eduard Kunz (Piano), Vilde Frang ( Violin), Barbara Buntrock ( Viola), Leonard Elschenbroich ( Cello)

In partnership with The Masterclass Media Foundation Archives, which provides a valuable educational resource in order to perpetuate musical passion and knowledge from one generation to another. [MMF014]