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

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartets.Tackling the Beethoven quartets is a rite of passage that has shaped the Takács Quartet's work together for over forty years. Using the history of the composition and first performances of the quartets as the backbone to his story, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takács since 1993 - recounts the life of the Quartet from its inception in Hungary, through emigration to the US and its present-day life as one of the world's renowned string quartets. He also describes what it was like for him, as a young man fresh out of the Juilliard School, to join the Quartet as its first non-Hungarian member - an exhilarating challenge. Beethoven for a Later Age takes the reader inside the life of a quartet, vividly showing how four people 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 also lies at the heart of Beethoven's remarkable compositions.

How does music heard and played over many years inform one's sense of home? In Distant Melodies, Edward Dusinberre, the English first violinist of the Takács Quartet, explores changing ideas of home, exile and return in the lives and particular chamber works of four composers: Antonin Dvorák, Edward Elgar, Bela Bartók and Benjamin Britten. A resident of Boulder, Colorado for nearly three decades, Dusinberre discovers ways in which music may both accentuate and ameliorate homesickness, as he visits and imagines some of the places crucial to these composers' creative inspiration. Drawn to the storiesof Dvorák, Bartók and Britten's American sojourns as they try to reconcile their new surroundings with nostalgiafortheir homelands, Dusinberre looks at his own evolving relationship to England through the prism of Elgar's unusual Piano Quintet and the landscapes that inspired it.New aspects of familiar music reveal themselves under altered circumstances. In the forty-eight years since the Takács Quartet was founded in Budapest, the ensemble has undergone several significant changes of personnel. During a concert tour in Hong Kong and a return to Budapest to perform in the same hall where Bartók gave his last concert in Hungary, Dusinberre examines how a piece of music may both reinforce roots and cross borders. When travel is forbidden, the ability of music to affirm home and transcend distance takes on extra significance. As the Takács welcomes a new violist during the COVID-19 pandemic, Britten's string quartets shape the ensemble's experience of rehearsing at home.Combining travel writing with revealing and humorous insights into the working lives of string quartet musicians, Distant Melodies illuminates the relationship between music and home.

A combination of memoir and music history, Distant Melodies takes the reader on a journey of exploration into the related ideas of home, displacement and retreat in the lives and music of four composers whose works Edward Dusinberre has rehearsed and performed as first violinist of the Takács Quartet: Antonín Dvorák, Edward Elgar, Béla Bartók and Benjamin Britten. Distant Melodies explores the experience of living with a piece of music over time and the ways in which engaging more closely with these composers has changed the author's own perception of home. As he learned more about Dvórâk, Bartók and Britten's American experiences, Elgar's remarkable Piano Quintet and the English landscapes that inspired it provided another way to explore the ways in which a piece of music may affirm or alter one's sense of home.While Dusinberre's earlier book, Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet,delved into the inner workings of a string quartet, Distant Melodies charts the progress of the Takács during a period of change as the world begins to emerge from the distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The essential read for fans of Beethoven and string quartet music.'No one has ever written a group of works that post so many questions about the form and emotional content of a string quartet, and come up with so many answers.'A rite of passage. A set of works that trace Beethoven's evolution as an avant-gardist. Some of the most extraordinary and challenging pieces of music ever written. A monument for the future. Together, Beethoven's sixteen string quartets mean many things, but for Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the celebrated Takács Quartet since 1993, they are defined by how finely they balance continuity and experimentation. It's the same balancing act that he argues is the secret to his and his colleagues delighting in playing together over so many years.Dusinberre intertwines the history of Beethoven's remarkable quartets with the life of the Takács over the past half century. Beethoven's Evolution shows vividly how the richness, depth, and breadth of Beethoven's musical imagination can generate a lifetime of discovery.

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

'They are not for you but for a later age!' Ludwig van Beethoven, on the Opus 59 quartets.Tackling the Beethoven quartets is a rite of passage that has shaped the Takács Quartet's work together for over forty years. Using the history of the composition and first performances of the quartets as the backbone to his story, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the Takács since 1993 - recounts the life of the Quartet from its inception in Hungary, through emigration to the US and its present-day life as one of the world's renowned string quartets. He also describes what it was like for him, as a young man fresh out of the Juilliard School, to join the Quartet as its first non-Hungarian member - an exhilarating challenge. Beethoven for a Later Age takes the reader inside the life of a quartet, vividly showing how four people 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 also lies at the heart of Beethoven's remarkable compositions.

How does music heard and played over many years inform one's sense of home? In Distant Melodies, Edward Dusinberre, the English first violinist of the Takács Quartet, explores changing ideas of home, exile and return in the lives and particular chamber works of four composers: Antonin Dvorák, Edward Elgar, Bela Bartók and Benjamin Britten. A resident of Boulder, Colorado for nearly three decades, Dusinberre discovers ways in which music may both accentuate and ameliorate homesickness, as he visits and imagines some of the places crucial to these composers' creative inspiration. Drawn to the storiesof Dvorák, Bartók and Britten's American sojourns as they try to reconcile their new surroundings with nostalgiafortheir homelands, Dusinberre looks at his own evolving relationship to England through the prism of Elgar's unusual Piano Quintet and the landscapes that inspired it.New aspects of familiar music reveal themselves under altered circumstances. In the forty-eight years since the Takács Quartet was founded in Budapest, the ensemble has undergone several significant changes of personnel. During a concert tour in Hong Kong and a return to Budapest to perform in the same hall where Bartók gave his last concert in Hungary, Dusinberre examines how a piece of music may both reinforce roots and cross borders. When travel is forbidden, the ability of music to affirm home and transcend distance takes on extra significance. As the Takács welcomes a new violist during the COVID-19 pandemic, Britten's string quartets shape the ensemble's experience of rehearsing at home.Combining travel writing with revealing and humorous insights into the working lives of string quartet musicians, Distant Melodies illuminates the relationship between music and home.

A combination of memoir and music history, Distant Melodies takes the reader on a journey of exploration into the related ideas of home, displacement and retreat in the lives and music of four composers whose works Edward Dusinberre has rehearsed and performed as first violinist of the Takács Quartet: Antonín Dvorák, Edward Elgar, Béla Bartók and Benjamin Britten. Distant Melodies explores the experience of living with a piece of music over time and the ways in which engaging more closely with these composers has changed the author's own perception of home. As he learned more about Dvórâk, Bartók and Britten's American experiences, Elgar's remarkable Piano Quintet and the English landscapes that inspired it provided another way to explore the ways in which a piece of music may affirm or alter one's sense of home.While Dusinberre's earlier book, Beethoven for a Later Age: The Journey of a String Quartet,delved into the inner workings of a string quartet, Distant Melodies charts the progress of the Takács during a period of change as the world begins to emerge from the distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The essential read for fans of Beethoven and string quartet music.'No one has ever written a group of works that post so many questions about the form and emotional content of a string quartet, and come up with so many answers.'A rite of passage. A set of works that trace Beethoven's evolution as an avant-gardist. Some of the most extraordinary and challenging pieces of music ever written. A monument for the future. Together, Beethoven's sixteen string quartets mean many things, but for Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the celebrated Takács Quartet since 1993, they are defined by how finely they balance continuity and experimentation. It's the same balancing act that he argues is the secret to his and his colleagues delighting in playing together over so many years.Dusinberre intertwines the history of Beethoven's remarkable quartets with the life of the Takács over the past half century. Beethoven's Evolution shows vividly how the richness, depth, and breadth of Beethoven's musical imagination can generate a lifetime of discovery.