Tanglewood, Lenox, MA
August 14, 2013
by Michael J. Moran
The 2013 appearance of favorite Tanglewood guest artists the
Emerson String Quartet featured a notable debut by their new Welsh-born
cellist, Paul Watkins, who succeeded David Finckel in that role several months
ago. Finckel had been the Emerson’s cellist since 1979, and the other players
are all original members of the group, which was formed in 1976: violinists
Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, and violist Lawrence Dutton.
They presented classic quartets from three centuries,
opening with Haydn’s 1772 Quartet No. 26, Opus 20/3. From the spirited first
movement, through the stately Minuetto, tender slow movement, and whirlwind
finale, the legendary technical precision, transparency of texture, and
interpretive acumen of this ensemble were abundantly clear. This rendition
sounded lighter, more graceful, indeed, more aptly classical than the Emerson’s
2001 Haydn quartet recordings.
The centerpiece of the program was Britten’s Quartet No. 3,
played as part of Tanglewood’s celebration of that composer’s centennial this
year. Written the year before he died in 1976, the first four movements of this
piece prepare for the culminating slow finale, a “Recitative and Passacaglia”
subtitled “La Serenissima” because it quotes themes from Britten’s final opera,
“Death in Venice.” The Emerson performance was deeply felt, capturing all the
angst of the two short fast movements and the poignancy of the moving finale.
Intermission was followed by a thrilling account of
Beethoven’s Quartet No. 7, Opus 59/1, the first of his three “Razumovsky”
quartets, named for the Russian ambassador in Vienna who commissioned them in
1806. Just as Britten had sounded more classic after Haydn, Beethoven sounded more
modern after Britten. This performance was more expansive and relaxed, and
several minutes longer, than that in the Emerson’s 1997 recording of
Beethoven’s complete quartets. But
it was even more dramatic for the greater contrasts, especially between the
ravishing Adagio and the lively finale, which features a Russian theme in
Razumovsky’s honor.
The large audience was rewarded with an encore of the
six-minute finale from the third Razumovsky quartet, which the Emersons played
with all the excitement required by its relentless “Allego molto” tempo and by
the crowd’s enthusiasm.
