I suppose I’m getting to be a bore about the Takács Quartet, but all the same it’s a wonder to see them grow together. The February program is a delicious one, featuring as it does the Debussy Quartet, Britten’s Third, and Janáček’s Second.
The Britten, about the last thing the composer finished, is mysteriously described as being “in G Major” on the Cal Performances website. I am reminded of the couple-decades-old Alban Berg Quartet recording of the Bartók quartets that insisted on assigning keys to all of them — No. 3 was in C-sharp minor, No. 4 in C major, No. 5 in B-flat major, and so forth. If the Britten Third is in any key at all, it’s certainly E major, which is where its last and longest movement spends almost all its time.