EVERY DAY A LITTLE DEATH - Takacs String Quartet @ Zankel Hall

Attended a PR extravaganza masked as a concert Tuesday night at Zankel Hall. This classical music performance event was a slight meditation on death featuring the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman reading excerpts from Philip Roth's new novel Everyman. Breaking up the actor's morose intonations of the text was music by Arvo Part (Psalom, Summa, & Fratres) and Philip Glass (String Quartet No.2 "Company") expertly performed by the Quartet. Part's music was a mix of Eastern drone harmonics with a slice of cantorial fervor on the side. Glass' music (done for a production of Samuel Beckett's "Company") had a nervous edginess which showed the composer at his best: concise, brilliant, light. The quartet gave thoughful, delicate performances of these works. We wish we could say the same for Mr. Hoffman. Sounding at times like he was on the verge of tears, the actors delivery was far too monotonous for these ears. He could have been reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead or On Death and Dying and been as effective. Mr. Roth's text strives for poetry but fails miserably. What does everyone love about this writer? We can't finish a single book of his!! Are we supposed to 'ooo' and 'ahh' because he's finally coming to grips with his mortality? Writers like Claude Simon and Jim Crace have done it more effectively, creatively, and lyrically.

The second half of the evening began with a (thankfully) brief, off-stage reading by Mr. Hoffman of Matthias Claudius' poem Death and the Maiden, which launched the Takacs into Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, which bears the same name. Here the quartet really shone, showing a vibrancy of musicianship and attack not seen in New York halls often. Judging from the rousing standing ovation the group received, we hope they return to grace our halls again soon.