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String Quartets, Overheard Orange County
Founder's Hall
02/02/2006 -
Beethoven: String Quartet in G, Op.18, No.2
Britten: String Quartet No.2 in C, Op.36
Shostakovich: Quartet No.5 in B-flat, Op.92
Philharmonia Quartett Berlin
Daniel Stabrawa (first violin)
Christian Stadelmann (second violin)
Neithard Resa (viola)
Jan Diesselhorst (cello) The concert of the Philharmonia Quartett Berlin at Founder’s Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center was an incredibly intimate event. It was almost as if the musicians were playing for themselves, for their own enjoyment. Those of us in the audience were lucky enough to be there to overhear them playing, at very close range. Founder’s Hall is a compact rectangular box of a room, with 257 chairs on portable risers against three of the walls. The quartet was staged against the fourth wall, in front of angled acoustic panels and below a suspended lighting cage. With black walls, floor and ceiling, the room is not glamorous. But it was a great privilege to hear a world-class quartet perform in such an informal, closely quartered venue. The small audience was absolutely silent. Perhaps because we were all so close to the performers, no one even coughed.
The opening Allegro movement of the early Beethoven quartet, Op. 18, No. 2, was workmanlike. These were clearly tremendously experienced musicians, but the performance was a little lifeless. Perhaps they were warming up (or perhaps my ears were still warming up.) They were playing the music exactly as written, rather than shaping a performance. Being the first chairs of the revered Berlin Philharmonic, they almost seemed to need a conductor. As a friend once observed, every orchestral musician would love to be playing chamber music. By the Scherzo of the third movement, the music was more lively and sprightly. They were each playing well, but separately, not at all of one mind. By the fourth movement, the music began to take over and carry them away. The Allegro molto, quasi Presto was deep and bright, dark and lovely, even playful. But perhaps this music was too familiar to these musicians, whose chairs at the Berlin Philharmonic are only a few generations away from Beethoven himself.
The Benjamin Britten quartet was a remarkable surprise. The Berliners were thrilled by the exotic foreign idiom of the English composer. The rich ensemble tone of the opening bars was intensely quiet, strident, more ravishing than I remembered. They made this great dark British music an answer to Shostakovich and Mahler, an alternate rendition of the angst of modern life. The music evoked the emotions of a painting by Francis Bacon, but made them gorgeous. Each player went wild, but they were relentlessly together. Their sliding glissandi were absurd, not tragic, but overcast and beautiful.
The hard, fast notes that began the second movement were wry smiles, narrative and lively. The deep, piercing cries of the cello that open the third movement led to a soulful dialogue amongst all of the strings, with more crying high notes in the first violin. The cello part in this piece is spectacular, and was stunningly well played. The piece ended eloquently, with a series of threats, left completely unresolved.
After the intermission, the atypical melodies of the Shostakovich quartet were richly sung. There were moments of angst that rose to furious energy, filled with anger. But even burning with anger, the melody held. The whispery high-pitched falsetto tones in the first violin were masterful, as was the ensemble in the Andante. The cello was again splendid, particularly in the extraordinary passage with pizzicato and bowing at the same time. Time and again, the mysterious song rose into the fury of a scratchy roar. There was an odd off-key intonation in one transition. But all in all, Shostakovich’s strange slice of life was splendidly rendered, with almost no hint of breaks between movements and a suitably eccentric ending.
Feet stomping on the wood floor and risers heightened the final applause. The encore was the last movement of Mozart’s Quartet in G major, the first dedicated to Haydn. The Molto allegro movement was a delightful dance, overflowing with alacrity and explosive attacks.
Thomas Aujero Small
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