concert review: Leipzig Quartet
Mar. 7th, 2009 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacA string quartet program largely consisting of Beethoven's Op. 132 and Mendelssohn's Op. 13 is asking for trouble. They're both big, heavy, abstruse, difficult, the one a direct inspiration on the other. If it hadn't been played well, this could have been the most boring string quartet concert EVER. But it was played very well indeed: in truth, this was the best chamber music program I've gone to at le petit Trianon all season.
The Mendelssohn in particular was a marvel. From the opening phrase it was obvious this was going to be a bright, eloquent performance without peer. I'd forgotten how charming the intermezzo movement of this quartet can be. It usually isn't.
The Beethoven was also excellent, but it was a different proposition. The truly profound performances of this work are usually based on a vivid contrast between the slow, anguished Adagio portions and the relieved Andante portions of the central movement. The Leipzig Quartet didn't try for that, but for a gentler, more even effect. In its way it worked.
But what they're really, really good at is pre-classical slow works. We had two of these in transcription: a motet by Heinrich Isaac in the main program, and a notebook piece by J.S. Bach for an encore. Played in intense awareness of contrapuntal interweaving, with lots of open strings and almost totally without vibrato, both works sounded a lot like the sad viol consort pieces that English composers were specializing in halfway between Isaac's and Bach's times.
The Mendelssohn in particular was a marvel. From the opening phrase it was obvious this was going to be a bright, eloquent performance without peer. I'd forgotten how charming the intermezzo movement of this quartet can be. It usually isn't.
The Beethoven was also excellent, but it was a different proposition. The truly profound performances of this work are usually based on a vivid contrast between the slow, anguished Adagio portions and the relieved Andante portions of the central movement. The Leipzig Quartet didn't try for that, but for a gentler, more even effect. In its way it worked.
But what they're really, really good at is pre-classical slow works. We had two of these in transcription: a motet by Heinrich Isaac in the main program, and a notebook piece by J.S. Bach for an encore. Played in intense awareness of contrapuntal interweaving, with lots of open strings and almost totally without vibrato, both works sounded a lot like the sad viol consort pieces that English composers were specializing in halfway between Isaac's and Bach's times.
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Date: 2009-03-07 10:25 pm (UTC)I meant to write about the day I spent with the Czech Republic's fabulous Zemlinsky Quartet on Feb. 8th; perhaps I will yet. I had the incredible honor of having them play for me privately two of Anton Reicha's string quartets, the C minor Opus 49 No. 1 (c. 1803-5) and the F minor Opus 94 No. 3 (year of composition unknown, published 1820); how I wish they could be the group to record the world premieres of those works! But they told me that 90% of what they play in recital and on CD is dictated to them by market forces; alack.