Close Encounters with Music
Mahaiwe, Great Barrington, MA
May 19, 2012
by Michael J. Moran
Introducing this impressive concert by the Daedalus Quartet,
CEWM Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani compared the opening piece, Berg’s 1910
“Quartet,” to Kafka in its “opacity,” or “absence of clear rhythmic patterns.”
But this rising young American ensemble found clarity and sensuality in both
movements of the lush atonal score. Their riveting account highlighted how
modern the works by Schubert and Beethoven also on this program must have
sounded to their first audiences.
The Schubert was the “Quartettsatz,” which he wrote in 1820
as the opening movement of a twelfth string quartet that he never finished. The
technical precision and dramatic momentum of the Daedalus performance were
especially remarkable because both second violinist Matilda Kaul and cellist
Thomas Kraines only joined the quartet within the past year. They meshed with
co-founding first violinist Min-Young Kim and longtime violist Jessica Thompson
as if they had all played together much longer.
The second half of the concert was devoted to the first of
Beethoven’s three “Razumovsky” quartets, commissioned in 1806 by the Russian
ambassador in Vienna. As evidence of this quartet’s “heroic” stature, Hanani
cited the “grand proportions” of the first movement, which encompasses four
octaves in its opening measures. He called the second movement “the most
original scherzo Beethoven ever wrote” and the third movement “unmatched in its
sorrow and heartbreaking emotion.” Even its extended length (40 minutes) sets
this quartet apart from all prior quartets by any composer, including
Beethoven.
The Daedalus rendition of all four movements was thrilling,
including the sudden transition from the quiet third movement to the exuberant
Russian theme quoted at the outset of the lively finale in honor of Count
Razumovsky. Each of the four musicians played expressively in both solo and
ensemble work, and they maintained a transparent balance through lyrical and
agitated passages alike. The consistent intensity of their playing earned the
Quartet an enthusiastic and well-deserved standing ovation at the end of the
evening.
Hanani’s perceptive and entertaining commentary could have
been usefully supplemented by brief notes about the music in the concert
program book.
