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THURSDAY

The Takács Quartet, pre-eminent interpreter of the Bartók string quartet cycle, plays with unusual intensity and passion. Founded in 1975 in Budapest, the group has had two lives: Its founding member, Gabor Takács-Nagy, left in the early ’90s, and its violist, Gabor Ormai, died. Since then, its two other founding members, violinist Károly Schranz and cellist András Fejér, have been joined by two Brits, violinist Edward Dusinberre and violist Roger Tapping. Tonight, you can hear them play the string quartet Opus 54, No. 2 of Haydn (who perfected the form), Su Tang’s string quartet, and Beethoven’s Opus 131, the opening of which was Bartók’s model for the first movement of his own first string quartet. The program begins at 8 p.m. at the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s Hammer Auditorium, 500 17th St. NW. $50. (202) 639-1770. (T.R. Goldman)