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Old Friends New York
Avery Fisher Hall
08/23/2001 -
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C Minor
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet # 12
Franz Schubert: "Trout" Qunitet
John Browning (piano)
Leigh Mesh (double bass)
Tokyo String Quartet
Mikhail Kopelman and Kikuei Ikeda (violins)
Kazuhide Isomura (viola)
Clive Greensmith (cello) I have had the pleasure of listening to the Tokyo String Quartet for approximately twenty-five years now, as they and I were both residents of Connecticut for an extended period of time. The group was quartet in residence at Yale and anchored the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in the Berkshire hills every summer. The membership has changed considerably over the years (only violist Kazuhide Isomura remains from the original ensemble) as has the ethnicity. The quartet has evolved in much the same way as the old Budapest, the founders remembered for their purity of sound and a touch of exoticism while the present mix became well known for their depth of interpretation. Occidentals (as well as accidentals) have played a large part in the growth of the musical organism, Peter Oundjian moving from the first violin chair to the directorship at Caramoor and Clive Greensmith, the newest edition, leaving the first cello chair of the Royal Phil for the more individually satisfying world of chamber performance. The acoustical personality of the group is gloriously colored by their implementation of the “Paganini Quartet”, a set of Strads once belonging to the great virtuoso that, in concert, sound as fine as any instruments that I have ever heard (the Budapest in its glory days also possessed such a set of instruments, but Alexander Schneider used to sneak in his own well-worn fiddle for concerts because it made him more comfortable). What has never wavered over the years is the quality of the musicianship.
The rapid development of the romantic novel in the nineteenth century did not only proceed on the printed page but also on the canvas and in the concert hall. The late quartets of Beethoven are each such personal statements and have a literary focus guiding their linear progressions. The inspiration for such narrative string quartets as those of Janacek or Zemlinsky, the Beethoven 12 through 16 are distinguished by the sheer size of their scope. The twelfth is a complete bildungsroman, as all-encompassing as the works of Tolstoy or Mann. These quartets take hundreds of listenings to absorb and a fine performance of them must breathe deeply the clean and crisp air of a large landscape. The Tokyo brought out this aspect of the piece, developing the retelling of this magnificent tale unhurriedly and with tender sympathies. The finely constructed Adagio was an extraordinary chapter (I always think of “Snow” from The Magic Mountain) expertly read aloud. I was thoroughly enjoying, eyes closed, the communal experience of hundreds of people appreciating the same depth of artistic understanding at the same time but this mood was shattered when the audience began to applaud after the third movement (is it too much to ask for these people to be able to count up to four?). The quartet played gamely on, fashioning a truly exciting finale, punctuated for me by a woman in my row exclaiming in a voice making no effort at a whisper “Oh, I guess they haven’t finished yet”. Ah, the summer concert experience!
What should have been a pleasurable finale was marred a bit when the members of the quartet and guests presented a rather four-square, metronomic ”Trout”. There is certainly something to be said for a rock-solid tempo (witness the best performances of Herbert von Karajan) but some music begs for elasticity. Recently, on Olga Bloom’s barge, I heard a wonderful version of the Schubert led by Jeremy Menuhin, filled with rhythmic color and rollicking accents. The Tokyo effort, although gorgeous in its sonorities, paled by comparison. Gone was the élan vital of the famous work and, of all pieces, this one depends the most strongly on its spirit. The ornamentation so lovingly applied at the floating concert hall seemed to be only half-heartedly present on terra firma. For example, the Tokyo’s first violinist Mikhail Kopelman very tentatively intoned his trills as if he were embarrassed to mimic the sounds of nature. Quite a contrast to the barge’s Mark Peskanov, who reveled in his opportunity to invoke the mood of the river. The pianism of John Browning was especially wooden and may have negatively dominated the performance in both volume and spirit (always the danger when one mixes the powerful keyboard instrument with the more delicate strings-the Brahms dilemma). Both evenings featured Mr. Greensmith and I wonder what he secretly thought of his new mates’ rather stodgy interpretation.
This coming season will be a treat for Tokyo fans. The quartet and guests will be traversing the chamber repertoire of Brahms, presenting the quartets, quintets and sextets in four concerts at the 92nd St. Y and (at least partially) in many other cities worldwide. It is a full commitment of an entire year and I am sure will be very rewarding for both participants and listeners.
Frederick L. Kirshnit
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