Moscow quartet provides a fine ending to festival

The program originally announced for Monday’s Moscow String Quartet was to consist of the 15th quartets of Beethoven and Shostakovich. Instead we got Mozart, Schnittke and Ravel, by no means an uninteresting program.

The Mozart Quartet in G, K. 387, sometimes called the Spring Quartet, was well-rendered, with nice balance, reasonable blend and so on. The Menuetto dragged a little, but it wasn’t too bothersome. Also the finale was too driven.

Alfred Schnittke’s String Quartet no. 2 (1980) is not a piece that sets out to ingratiate the listener, though the difficulties it poses are not outrageous. The Muscovites really dug into it and produced a persuasive account.

The program ended with Ravel’s Quartet in F, a perennial favourite with audiences everywhere. The first movement was perhaps a little more musky than fragrant, but it worked well enough on its own terms.

The fourth Music and Beyond Festival is now history. It should be counted an overall if qualified success. The organizers suffered the embarrassment of having to move two high-profile events from the NAC to Dominion-Chalmers because ticket sales weren’t able to justify the rental of NAC facilities.

The attendance at some concerts was disappointing, most notably a concert of Canadian music at Tabaret Hall Sunday afternoon that reportedly drew a mere 30 listeners. Then there was a concert by pianist Stewart Goodyear and the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the Albert Street Educational Centre. Many were unable to attend because Bluesfest patrons had taken every parking space for blocks around.

But there were a number of really fine concerts that could only be applauded. Three major international string quartets, the Auryn, the Borodin and the Moscow, were outstanding. In fact the Borodin program of Glinka, Myaskovsky and Borodin was doubtless the highlight of the festival, though at least two of the Auryn Quartet’s concerts were in the same class.

It’s always a pleasure to hear the venerable pianist Menahem Pressler even if his technique is starting to sound a little tentative. He’ll be 90 in December.

The opening concert featuring the Cirque Fantastic may not have had the originally promised aerial violinist, but it was a nice show that sent people home happy. In fact, you could say that of this year’s Music and Beyond in general.