REVIEW: South Mountain Concerts, "Dover String Quartet"

South Mountain Concerts, Pittsfield, MA 

www.southmountainconcerts.org

October 15, 2023 

by Michael J. Moran 

Formed at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 2008, ensemble-in-residence there since 2020, and named after “Dover Beach,” a 1931 song by Curtis graduate Samuel Barber, the Dover String Quartet – violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee; violist Julianne Lee, a member only since last month; and cellist Camden Shaw – brought a diverse selection of quartets from three centuries to an appreciative South Mountain audience. 

Technical cohesion and interpretive maturity, even at their start as a foursome, was immediately evident in Franz Joseph Haydn’s 1793 Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74/3. The taut, galloping rhythms of both the opening “Allegro” movement and the “Allegro con brio” finale fully embraced the work’s nickname, the “Rider” quartet. The middle movements – a heartfelt slow “Largo assai” and a gently flowing “Menuetto: Allegretto” – were played with equal conviction. 

Introducing Florence Price’s Quartet No. 1 in G Major, Shaw noted that like much of the pioneering African-American composer’s instrumental music, it was rediscovered only in 2009, over fifty years after her death, in the attic of her former home near Chicago. Likely written in the 1920s, its two surviving movements – a graceful “Allegro” and a folk-flavored “Andante Moderato-Allegretto” – were giving sumptuous, affectionate treatment by this ensemble. 

The program – and the 2023 South Mountain season - closed with a dramatic reading of Franz Schubert’s 1824 Quartet No. 14 in D Minor. Its nickname, “Death and the Maiden,” derives from the composer’s 1817 song of that title, quoted in the second movement, which may reflect a premonition of his death four years later at the age of only thirty-one. The Dovers heightened this mood with a tumultuous “Allegro,” a haunting “Andante con moto,” including five starkly delineated variations on the song’s opening melody, a demonic “Scherzo. Allegro molto-Trio,” and a frenzied closing “Presto.” 

“It’s about being part of something larger than yourself while not losing your individuality. It’s completely personal but also greater than you. It’s the ultimate form of making music.” This comment about chamber music by Dover first violinist Joel Link in a recent interview may help explain not only the many critical accolades that his ensemble has received but the enduring success of this century-old chamber music festival held in Pittsfield every September and October.