An introduction to the piano music of Jeno Takacs

American Music Teacher, April-May, 2004 by Jerry Perkins

The Partita, written for Paul Badura-Skoda, is Takacs's only work written using a strict twelve-tone technique. But, as Takacs himself remarked, "What came into being was a tonal piece and sounded exactly like my other works. This was a surprise to me." The five movements of the work (Introduzione, Notturno, Recitativo, Canone and Toccata Burlesca) are all relatively short, but terribly effective. The introduction is based on a short six-note motive that is treated canonically, first in single notes and then in double notes. Dynamics are important to the overall structure. It begins pianissimo building to a fortissimo climax and then receding once again to pianissimo. The second movement is a very atmospheric kind of "night music." The third movement is quite dramatic, while the fourth is a marvelously conceived canon presenting the twelve-tone row in its entirety. The last movement is a brilliant virtuoso movement that uses the whole range of the keyboard. At the climax of the movement, the row is heard in diminution in the highest register of the piano, while in the left hand the row is heard in augmentation in the very lowest register of the instrument.

The 4 Epitaphs is one of Takacs's best and most interesting works for piano. Each movement is a kind of "hommage" to a composer he either knew (Hindemith, Berg, Bartok) or respected (Debussy). It is amazing how well he conveys the atmosphere of each individual composer, and yet the style is unmistakably Takacs. The Praeludium for Paul Hindemith uses a canon composed by Hindemith on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday in December 1960. This is the only movement that uses any material not Takacs's own. The technical demands of this composition are not particularly great for an accomplished pianist, but one must possess a rather sophisticated musicianship and good sense of style.

The Twilight Music takes only about nine and a half minutes to play and consists of six very short movements. This composition shows Takacs at his absolute best as a composer of miniatures. Each movement creates its own mood and atmosphere with a great economy of means, but with enormous imagination. There is a misprint in the first movement: The arpeggiated chords in the treble clef in the last line should all be the same: F-sharp, A, C-sharp, F, A-flat, C, E. The second movement, the composer told me, should be played not expressively, but like ice. In movement four there should be a fermata over the last cluster in line two.

In addition to the solo works, Takacs has written three concertos for piano and orchestra. The first was written in 1934 and lost during the war. The second, Opus 60 for piano, string orchestra and percussion, was written in 1947 and premiered in Lausanne that year with the composer at the piano. Opus 60 was subsequently performed by Alfred Brendel. It was revised several times, most recently in 2000, and has since been performed several times in Europe. The third is the Tarantella for piano and orchestra. This, one of Takacs's most popular works, has received many performances and has been recorded by the author with the Black Sea Philharmonic, as well as by Alexander Jenner. This is a brilliant and effective one-movement work that is some fifteen minutes long.