Brentano String Quartet stays clear of autopilot
A concert spanning three centuries, the same number of countries and varied scoring might appear to have few thematic strains. But insight can emerge from unusual juxtapositions.
Perhaps the audience will find commonality among the strange bedfellows of the Brentano String Quartet’s program at Carnegie Music Hall on Monday night. Presented by Chamber Music Pittsburgh, the acclaimed ensemble, which was founded in 1992 and is quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music, will perform Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Suite in D minor, James MacMillan’s String Quartet No. 3 and Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.
The quartet will begin with the dance suite by Charpentier (16431704), who wrote the work for a consort of viols, the predecessor to the modern string quartet. The French baroque composer was largely outshined by his contemporary, Jean-Baptiste Lully, who
worked in the court of Louis XIV. Charpentier is best known for his vocal music, and the nineminute suite represents one of his few instrumental works.
The musicians switch gears for Scottish composer James MacMillan’s String Quartet No. 3, a “raw and vividly colorful piece” written more than three centuries later, said violist Misha Amory.
The first movement “has an almost lamenting quality,” he said. “When we first played it, we thought it almost sounded Jewish.” The brutal second movement calls for several extended techniques, such as tapping the instruments, bowing behind the bridge or on the tailpiece and producing scratch-tones, according to the score. The hymn-like third movement is quieter, “and eventually kind of vanishes into the ether,” the violist said.
The stylistic differences between the works don’t faze the players. “The Charpentier is so straightforward and so of its time that it doesn’t even try to interfere with the next piece,” Mr. Amory said. “It is what it is. It’s easy to set it down and move on.”
Replicating a performance practice common during the baroque period, the musicians will also add ornaments to the Charpentier. Most are played by first violinist Mark Steinberg; the remaining musicians toss in their own, which create fresh harmonies and become part of the conversation of the piece. “The ornaments are more or less improvised,” Mr. Amory said. The musicians will also incorporate notes inegales — swung, unequal notes — which are a hallmark of French baroque music.
The end of the MacMillan, meanwhile, calls for the players to “gradually squeeze out some more high notes, improvising ever upwards,” according to the score.
In both cases, then, some of the music will be the spontaneous creations of the players, beyond what is written in the score. “It’s a good reminder to us as performers to stay in the moment and never go on automatic at any point,” Mr. Amory said.
To conclude the concert, the quartet will be joined by regular collaborator and clarinetist Todd Palmer on Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet. The composer emerged out of a brief retirement to write this standard of the chamber-music repertory.
“There’s a very latelife sadness to it,” Mr. Amory said.
“The piece is gloomy,” he said, “but it’s also radiant.”