The new season’s string quartets
We now take our first steps into the classical-music season of 2017-2018, which looks more promising than last year’s and downright remarkable in at least one respect. The biggest winners this season will be aficionados of chamber music, and particularly those who are drawn to the central ensemble of that domain, the string quartet.
As a medium, the string quartet has occupied the highest rung on the chamber music ladder ever since it coalesced as a standard combination in about 1760. The timing was perfect. String instruments were played widely and well by amateurs as well as professionals. The combination of four instruments — two violins, viola, and cello — could project capably in a good-sized salon, such as an aristocrat might boast, but was also well suited to the more intimate surroundings of less exalted music lovers. The instruments shared similar technical and acoustical principles, such that their tones combined logically as a sonic unit. Because there were four players, the group was ideally situated to convey music in fourpart harmony, which was by then the standard for European music. The string quartet emerged in the second half of the 18th century initially in Southern Germany, Austria, and Bohemia, coinciding with the Classical era in precisely those locales. That meant that the new genre was borne aloft on the shoulders of some of the best composers who ever put notes on paper — first by Haydn, who composed 68 quartets (by generally accepted count), then by Mozart and Beethoven, who respectively produced 26 and 16 works for quartet. With a foundational repertoire of that eminence — and not even taking into consideration estimable pieces written by their colleagues and contemporaries — the string quartet entered the Romantic era as an essential arena for serious musical endeavor. Few major composers have failed to grapple with it.
From early on, the string quartet was viewed as a particularly personal forum for music-making. “Of all types of instrumental music,” wrote the polymathic poet Goethe in 1829, “I have always been able to follow these the best. You listen to four sensible persons conversing, you profit from their discourse, and you get to know the individual character of the instruments.” He was not the first to consider the art of the quartet to be a kind of conversation. The novelist Stendhal, in his 1817 put it this way (in the charming period translation of William Gardiner):
An intelligent lady said, that when she heard a quartett of Haydn’s, she fancied herself present at a conversation of four agreeable persons. She thought the first violin had the air of an eloquent man of genius, of middle age, who supported a conversation, the subject of which he had suggested. In the second violin, she recognized a friend of the first, who sought by all possible means to display him to advantage, seldom thought of himself, and kept up the conversation, rather by assenting to what was said by others, than by advancing any ideas of his own. The alto [viola] was a grave, learned, and sententious man. He supported the discourse of the first violin by laconic maxims, striking for their truth. The bass [cello] was a worthy old lady, rather inclined to chatter, who said nothing of much consequence, and yet was always desiring to put in a word. But she also gave an additional grace to the conversation, and while she was talking, the other interlocutors had time to breathe. It was, however, evident, that she had a secret inclination for the alto, which she preferred to the other instruments.
In his 1966 book the distinguished British music critic Neville Cardus took a more jaundiced position when assessing the second violinists and violists of quartets he encountered in performance: “Most string quartets have a basement and an attic, and the lift is not working.”
The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival always presents a few string quartets during its summers here, usually the same ones year after year, but they are relatively rare during the fall-winter-spring season. This year, however, no fewer than 11 notable string quartets will give concerts hereabouts, if we expand our listening purview to include not just Santa Fe (which hosts six of them) but also Albuquerque and Taos. It’s an international array, ranging from foursomes in their early years to groups who have been building their reputations over decades, maintaining their identities through inevitable shifts in personnel.
First up is the Dover Quartet, which appears courtesy of Performance Santa Fe, as a co-presenter with Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, on Thursday, Sept. 28, at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. We are at this moment living in a golden age of string quartets, with estimable young ensembles making their way onto stages at a more vigorous rate than the
The string quartet emerged in the second half of the 18th century, borne aloft on the shoulders of some of the best composers who ever put notes on paper.
concert industry can realistically accommodate. Some will succeed and others will not, but the Dover has soared quickly to the top of the pack since its founding in 2009, recently buoyed by receiving a 2017 Avery Fisher Career Grant. They have appeared here repeatedly on programs of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Los Alamos Concert Association, but for this engagement they will bring along a friend — double-bass player Edgar Meyer. We would be just as happy to hear the Dovers all on their own, since they have cultivated a remarkable distinction of sound that is best appreciated unadulterated. They will play Bartók’s Quartet No. 1, an early piece in the composer’s catalogue, not often heard in recital but an interesting example of a post-Romantic mind pointing in intriguing directions. Meyer will assist in pieces by Rossini and Mozart as well as in his own Quintet for Strings.
The American String Quartet is now beginning its 42nd season. Since 1984 it has been quartet-inresidence at the Manhattan School of Music. The group plays most of the standard repertoire, but it has carved out a particular niche championing music by contemporary American composers, as befits its name. Their appearances at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, will include the Second Quartet of Robert Sirota, who spent nine years as president of the Manhattan School, along with music by Barber, Dvorˇ ák (his American Quartet, wouldn’t you know?), and Chinese-born American composer Zhou Tian — his Viaje (Journey), in which they will be assisted by flutist Nancy Laupheimer, director of the Taos Chamber Music Group. The Sirota piece, subtitled American Pilgrimage, will have regional resonance, its third movement being titled “Sunset: High Desert, Santa Fe, New Mexico.”
Also on the near-term horizon is the seasonopening concert of Chamber Music Albuquerque (on Oct. 15 at the Simms Center for the Performing Arts). It features one of the great names of the chamber music world, the Borodin Quartet. The ensemble was founded in 1945 in the Soviet Union, and the last of its charter members left the group in 2007. That was cellist Valentin Berlinsky, and in fact he was not quite a charter member. The group started out (under the name Moscow Conservatoire Quartet) with a fellow named Mstislav Rostropovich in the cello chair, but after a few weeks he found himself too busy and Berlinsky took over. Still, the ensemble has held on to its traditions — members are invariably graduates of the Moscow Conservatory — and the current lineup, two of whom have played in the quartet for more than two decades, maintains the ensemble’s reputation as a high-octane group that pulls no punches. As leading lights of the Soviet musical firmament, the Borodins played at the funerals of both Stalin and Prokofiev, and Shostakovich coached them personally in all of his quartets. Two of those quartets — his Sixth and Thirteenth — figure on this program, the ensemble’s first in the American Southwest, along with Schubert’s
Quartettsatz and a selection of Tchaikovsky piano pieces arranged by Rostislav Dubinsky, the ensemble’s original first violinist.
Further fine foursomes will pass through as the season unrolls. The Atrium String Quartet (Russians now residing in Berlin) has made a strong impression in past appearances at St. John’s College, especially playing Shostakovich. They have not yet announced their repertoire, but one hopes his music will be on their stands again when they pay a return visit there on Nov. 10. On Jan. 13, 2018, Santa Fe Pro Musica hosts the Escher String Quartet, playing Haydn (Op. 76, No. 1), Kurtág, and Beethoven (Op. 132). This is also a relatively young group, having been founded in 2005 at the Manhattan School, and they enjoy an ongoing affiliation with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Like the Dovers, they are laureates of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 2015 they also received the Martin E. Segal Award, given by Lincoln Center. A week later, on Jan. 21, those in the know will again make the trek to Chamber Music Albuquerque (at the Simms Center) to catch the Takács Quartet, one of the world’s most eminent foursomes. The group is based at the University of Colorado, but its roots lie in Hungary and two of its original Magyar members have been anchoring its second violin and cello chairs since its founding in 1975. Well, what do you know? They, too, will be playing Bartók’s Quartet No. 1 — they possess a special empathy for the greatest Hungarian quartet composer — and they’ll round out their program with Mozart’s D-major Quartet (K.575) and Brahms’ Quartet No. 3 (his last, and most friendly, contribution to the genre).
On Feb. 2, the Lensic presents Brooklyn Rider, a hip New York foursome whose playing promises lots of pizzazz. Their program is not yet announced, but one expects that it will include some up-to-date works from the younger generation. Pro Musica is not settling for just the Escher this season; they are also bringing in the Danish String Quartet on Feb. 11, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet on March 4. The Danes are enjoying a bounding reputation at the moment, gaining lots of press for their
String quartets,
continued from Page 21 infectious interpretations of eclectic repertoire. Their program here looks pretty mainstream yet interesting. Three of their pieces are hunt-related: Haydn’s Op. 1, No. 1, nicknamed La chasse (and published in 1762, so right at the beginning of the genre’s history), Mozart’s Hunt Quartet, and the Jagdquartett by the contemporary German composer Jörg Widmann. They’ll conclude with Brahms’ Quartet No. 3, thus providing an opportunity for listeners to compare their performance with the Takács’ of three weeks earlier. The St. Lawrence is a return visitor to these parts. The leading Canadian foursome, they can display a rugged style but they never disappoint when it comes to imagination; they force a listener to engage with the score. Here, their program will comprise Beethoven’s Op. 135, John Adams’ First Quartet (which they premiered in 2009), and Sibelius’ Voces Intimae.
Another legendary ensemble follows on April 21: Kronos Quartet, which Performance Santa Fe presents at the Lensic. Again we have no hint of the program, but one would be amazed if their pieces were not all from recent years and largely inflected with a vibe of exotic internationalia, which has been the group’s signature since it set up shop in 1973. Through the ensuing decades it has commissioned more than nine hundred works, so the players don’t lack for material to choose from.
Bringing up the rear of season, on June 10, is the Pacifica Quartet at the Simms Center, hosted by Chamber Music Albuquerque — with the program still to be announced. This group did exciting work during its 17 years as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago, and it released many stimulating recordings on the Cedille label, particularly a series focusing on the music of Shostakovich and his Soviet contemporaries. A summer ago, they appeared at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and turned in performances that fell short of expectation. At the time, the group had announced that its first violinist would depart imminently; then she didn’t; then, this past May, the second violinist and the violist left instead, to take conservatory faculty positions at Oberlin and Eastman respectively. That left the first violinist and cellist to continue — they are married to each other — and the group now embarks on 2017-2018 with the other half of its personnel replaced. We have withheld mentioning a couple of more marginal string quartets that will pass through this season; but although it is a wild card, the Pacifica could be worth following in the hope that it will get over this hump and move forward with competitive status. The new season includes lots more than string quartets, to be sure, but the coming months will offer a rare opportunity for music-lovers to dig into this seminal genre through a wealth of comparative listening.
As leading lights of the Soviet musical firmament, the Borodin Quartet played at the funerals of both Stalin and Prokofiev.