Right in the middle of the Takacs Quartet's breathtaking finale of the
Bartok String Quartet No. 1, Op. 7, in Berkeley today, I had a sudden,
clear instance of time travel.

It wasn't just the flash of deja vu, but rather going back in time, to the
1950s, and those incongruous naked ebony ladies looking down the concert
hall in the Franz Liszt Academy, when I heard the work for the first time.

Listening in Hertz Hall today and listening back then juxtaposed two sound
sculptures that just didn't fit -- they are, truly, two different pieces.
And yet, they are the same; it's my listening, *our* hearing that make the
difference.

What set me off on this journey was the realization that I don't hear
dissonance.  Back in Budapest, that's all I heard...  except for the
`Peacock' theme, which was recognizable, `real music.' What enormous
difference, what incredible change that took place in our hearing of music!
Bartok has a double role in this:  he is a kind of touchstone, both in what
we understand to be `music' and in what his works have done bringing about
the change.

What a shock it must have been to hear this music at the first performance,
in 1909.  Certainly, Richard Strauss has done some upsetting of listeners,
and Schoenberg (both ways, with the extreme romanticism of `Gurre Lieder'
and his own reaction against that by around that time), and there was
Stravinsky yet to come rubbing the audience's nose into it -- but Bartok's
music was *unintentionally* `schocking.' There is no bloodthirsty princess
here or revenge-crazed daughter, only complex, `different,' magnificent
music -- without a program, a message, the intent to provide theatrical
shock.  It was impossible in 1909, it was hard in 1955...  and there is
no problem in 1999.  A strange and wonderful development.

The half-Hungarian (Karoly Schranz and Andras Fejer).  half British
(Edware Dusinberre and Rober Tapping) Takacs Quartet plays Bartok with
an authenticity that goes as much beyond nationality as does Bartok's
music itself.  Technical perfection, vitality, passion, total devotion --
this first of the two concerts presenting all six Bartok quartets was a
wonderful Event.  (Quartets No.  2, 4 and 6 will be played on Oct.  3.)

Quartet No. 1 exhibited the Takacs energy at its most spectacular, No. 3
dazzled with the its elegant security over the impossibly difficult
material; and No. 5 -- which has elements that are `difficult' even today
-- gripped the audience so completely that the concert hall became a
theater.  There were quiet, happy laughs (tastefully sotto voce) at the
score's grotesque jokes; listeners leaned forward as dramatic resolutions
arrived; the great (but not overdone) finale pulled the audience out of
the seats.  Consider what we have here:  Bela Bartok, popular composer,
conquering a full house.  We *have* come a long way.

Janos Gereben/SF
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