Beethoven for a Later Age by Edward Dusinberre

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartets

Beethoven's sixteen string quartets are some of the most extraordinary and challenging pieces of music ever written. They have inspired artists of all kinds - not only musicians - and have been subject to endless reinterpretation. What does it feel like to be a musician taking on these iconic works? And how do the four string players who make up a quartet interact, both musically and personally?

The Takács is one of the world's pre-eminent string quartets. Performances of Beethoven have shaped their work together for over forty years. Using the history of both the Takács Quartet and the Beethoven quartets as the backbone to his story, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takács since 1993, recounts the exhilarating challenge of tackling these pieces. Beethoven for a Later Age takes the reader inside the daily life of a quartet, vividly showing the necessary creative tension between individual and group expression and how four people can enjoy making music together over a long period of time.

The key, the author argues, is in balancing continuity with change and experimentation - a theme that lies at the heart of Beethoven's remarkable compositions. No other composer has posed so many questions about the form and emotional content of a string quartet, and come up with so many different answers. In an accessible style, suitable for novices and chamber music enthusiasts alike, Dusinberre illuminates the variety and inherent contradictions of Beethoven's quartets, composed against the turbulent backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath, and shows that engaging with this radical music continues to be as invigorating now as it was for its first performers and audiences.

About the Author: As first violinist of the Takács Quartet, Edward Dusinberre has won a Grammy and awards from Gramophone Magazine, the Japanese Recording Academy, Chamber Music America and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Outside of the quartet he has made a recording of Beethoven's violin sonatas nos. 9 (Kreutzer) and 10 on the Decca label. Dusinberre is also an author. His second book Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home is published by Faber and University of Chicago Press in the Fall of 2022. The book explores the themes of displacement and return in the lives and specific chamber works of Dvorák, Elgar, Bartók and Britten. His first book Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet, takes the reader inside the life of a string quartet, melding music history and memoir as it explores the circumstances surrounding the composition of Beethoven's quartets and the Takács Quartet's experiences rehearsing and performing this music. The book won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2016 Creative Communication Award. Announcing the award the RPS Committee said: "Few have told so well of the musician's life, or offered such illuminating insights to players and listeners alike." Dusinberre lives in Boulder, where he is Artist-in-Residence and a Christoffersen Fellow at the University of Colorado. In 2017 he was appointed a member of the faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and is a Visiting Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama., As first violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet, Edward Dusinberre has won a Grammy and awards from Gramophone Magazine, the Japanese Recording Academy, Chamber Music America and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Combining an international career with his longstanding appointment as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Dusinberre performs as a member of the Takács in the USA, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, and is an Associate Artist at London's Wigmore Hall. Acclaimed for its interpretations of a wide range of repertoire, the Takács Quartet is noted for innovative projects. The quartet has worked with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Roth and poet Robert Pinsky on concerts that combined words and music. A project with the Hungarian music ensemble Muzsikás explores the inspiration and sources for Bartók's musical language. In June 2020 the Takács Quartet was featured in the BBC television series Being Beethoven.Dusinberre's first book, Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet, (Faber) melded music history and memoir to illuminate the circumstances surrounding the composition of Beethoven's quartets and the Takács Quartet's experiences playing this music. For this work Dusinberre won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2016 Creative Communication Award: 'Few have told so well of the musician's life, or offered such illuminating insights to players and listeners alike.', As first violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet, Edward Dusinberre has won a Grammy and awards from Gramophone Magazine, the Japanese Recording Academy, Chamber Music America and the Royal Philharmonic Society. His first book, Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet, published by Faber & Faber (UK) and the University of Chicago Press (USA), melded music history and memoir to illuminate the circumstances surrounding the composition of Beethoven's quartets and the Takács Quartet's experiences playing this music. For this work Dusinberre won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2016 Creative Communication Award: 'Few have told so well of the musician's life, or offered such illuminating insights to players and listeners alike.' The book has been translated into German and Korean. Dusinberre's latest book Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home will be published by Faber in 2022.Dusinberre lives in Boulder, where he is Artist-in-Residence and a Christoffersen Fellow at the University of Colorado.