Takacs Quartet bring Haydn, Beethoven with Cathy and Angie Milliken to UWA Winthrop Hall for Musica Viva

East met West in a shimmering display of artistry by Takacs Quartet and the Milliken sisters Cathy and Angie for Musica Viva at Winthrop Hall on Monday. Closing off a national tour on the coldest Perth day in 50 years, Takacs celebrated their own half-century with ‘The Rider’ string quartet. Dedicated by Haydn to a Hungarian count but written for the lucrative London market in 1793, it was an East-West transfer to match Takacs’ long-term transition from Budapest to the US. Jaunty runs and arpeggios opened a flurry of energy easy on the ear, informed by a relaxed informality born of many years together. Knowing glances across the ensemble united them as in a dance, their dynamic ebb-and-flow, pause-and-go a fine art, with a dramatic finish to the opening Allegro movement. More fluid tone introduced the Largo second stanza, a dreamy meditation couched in classical finesse. Violinist Edward Dusinberre led with expressive composure, followed by Harumi Rhodes (violin) and Richard O’Neill (viola) over steady sustaining cello (Andras Fejer); demure in the cadence. The Menuetto third movement summoned sunshine sorely lacking in the day. Carefully judged cascades down the scale slowed to pool in contemplative passages before breaking to formal steps, crisp and cordial. Barely a pause led in the Allegro con brio finale, bursting out of the blocks to peak in high harmonics then dropping to subterfuge and starting over in the equine rhythm that gave the work its name. Just as Dusinberre seemed done Rhodes picked up to spur more histrionics; sudden silence alternating with bustling industry and leisurely strolls in a stop-start routine that kept us guessing to the end. Cue the Milliken sisters with a world premiere by composer Cathy, setting music to Bertold Brecht’s Sonnet in Emigration and other verse, narrated by actor Angie. Brecht’s East-West dislocation was the motif, fleeing nazism only to recoil from American anti-communism and return to Berlin. The narrator, standing amid the quartet, cast a clinical spell on the hall; immersed in shards of constrained bowing from high strings and plangent cello, a capricious, questing kaleidoscope. When words came they were crystal clear, with a tangible despair in the cadence “not at the evenfall” echoing the eulogy of remembrance, before “All this I shall never see again” triggered quiet rumination with frosty highlights. Harmonics accompanied fond memories as narration switched to Brecht’s native German; alternating with English as if penetrating different layers of memory and consciousness. Cello intoned funeral notes, stirring discords restrained to give voice full play. “Schreibt mir” — “Write to me” — the actor pleaded gently; speaking of alienation as strings gave it form in the tyranny of distance and dissonance. Questions spilled out addressed to the intangible other, sparking a doleful violin soliloquy morphing to collective keening and febrile fluttering. Here the composer hit the hot spot in cacophonous chords and harsh harmonics before resiling to more settled tonality. “Spell your name” — Brecht’s torment as a writer in a foreign land — evoked isolation from lifestyle and livelihood, hemmed in on both sides of the Atlantic. Liquid filled the void, the narrator pouting words like droplets: “You cannot shake off the water you poured into the wine,” summoning ritualistic visions tinged with hope: “You can begin again with your last breath.” Mystic gyrations of the violist’s bow finally closed the work in irresolute calm; a pregnant pause awaiting resolution. After the interval, Beethoven’s robust ‘Razumovsky’ quartet set a restive mood punctuated by one brusque chord, a moment of mystery, then a flash of whimsy and joyous celebration. Unburdened by poetic purpose the quartet fell into spontaneous lyricism, with theatrical flourishes in breathless halts and sudden eruptions, while violist O’Neill looked out on the hall with the knowing smile of a silent movie star. Extravagance was evident but also nonchalance; refusing to settle in formulaic playing, wringing every nuance from each twist and turn of the score. The Andante second movement dawned in plaintive mode, distinctly East European in keeping with Beethoven’s dedication to a Russian prince and Takacs’ own heritage. A heartbeat in pizzicato cello sustained sweet sonority in a silky violin lead, echoed across the ensemble down to an infinitesimal cadence. The Menuetto gracioso third stanza matched its label, a sliver of melody shimmering gracefully from one fingerboard and bow to the next as each artist brought a personal touch to a seamless whole. When the breakneck finale dawned every sinew pulled together in lightning-quick lock step. The art of pause-and-go-again was so refined and sustained it seemed they might never stop; but even Beethoven has to end somehow — here in a riotous dash to close and a storm of warm applause. As encore, Takacs played the second movement to Ravel’s String Quartet — “something with a few less notes”, Dusinberre quipped — its magical pizzicato and lush melody a sugar-plumb dessert to a rich musical feast. Musica Viva will bring all seven of its national tours to His Majesty’s Theatre in 2026, starting in February with British tenor Allan Clayton and Australian pianist Kate Golla in a remount of their 2022 collaboration with illustrations by Fred Williams, A Winter’s Journey (after Schubert’s Winterreise). In May, pianist Aura Go, cellist Timo-Veikko Vave and violinist Kristian Winter bring Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ trio, with works by Ravel and Boulanger and a premiere from Australian composer Melody Eotvos. June will see Britain’s Doric String Quartet and Australian clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff present Thomas Ades’ ‘Alchymia’ quintet and another take on Beethoven’s ‘Razumovsky’. In July, violinist Leila Josefowicz and pianist John Novacek bring music of Debussy and Stravinsky with a premiere of ‘Mriya’ by Britain’s Charlotte Bray. Flamboyant cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and lutenist Thomas Dunford put the rock in Baroque during August, with pieces by Marais, Forqueray and Bach. In October, British pianist Paul Lewis returns to Musica Viva with Mozart, Poulenc and Debussy; and the Latvian Radio Choir team with Australian recorder doyenne Genevieve Lacey for works by Caroline Shaw, Mendelssohn, Vasks, Part, Palestrina and Van Eyck, plus premieres from Eriks Esenvalds, and collaborators Hollis Taylor and Jon Rose.