Chamber Music!

This past Tuesday evening I attended my first real chamber music concert since attending performances by the Pacifica Quartet and Avalon Quartet during my time at Interlochen (in 2006!). (This also doesn't count the celebrity Itzhak Perlman/Yo-Yo Ma/ Emanuel Ax piano trio, and chamber music concerts were not all that common growing up.)

Miró Quartet
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
7:30 PM

Daniel Ching, Violin
William Fedkenheuer, Violin
John Largess, Viola
Joshua Gindele, Cello

String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 "Fifths" - Franz Joseph Haydn
Allegro
Andante o più tosto allegretto
Menuetto: Allegro ma non troppo
Finale: Vivace assai

String Quartet No. 5 - Gunther Schuller

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 "Razumovsky 3" - Ludwig van Beethoven
Introduzione: Andante con moto-Allegro vivace
Andante con moto quasi allegretto
Menuetto grazioso
Allegro molto

This performance was held at UW's Meany Hall, which was a smaller auditorium providing a much more intimate atmosphere.

View from the back row of the balcony (Click to Enlarge)

The quartet was quite amazing-they were able to blend their sounds into one group instead of playing as a group of talented individuals. The balance was never really skewed towards or away any particular musician. Most of the passages were very crisp and clean, except for the violist, who seemed to occasionally struggle with running 16th notes, particularly in some of the faster passages in the Haydn and Beethoven. The Haydn felt a little heavy at times, but was otherwise excellent. The Schuller quartet is a new quartet currently enjoying its premiere season, which, coupled with my distaste of modern music, did not satisfy my tastes. I felt that some composition rules were too overbearing, and that there wasn't really that much of a progression throughout the piece-just more "white noise". I was particularly excited to hear the Beethoven, as I had previously played Razumovsky 2 and another quartet had played from Razumovsky 3 during my time at Interlochen. This piece was the highlight of the performance and was executed very well (except for some of those running 16th notes in the viola).

One thing I did notice (which can be seen from the photo), was that the stands were very low; in some cases the tops of the stands were barely above knee-level. While stands can't be eye level as you need to see other members of the quartet, knee-level is too low. The violist in particular was slouching quite a bit, and as he was sitting on the outside, his viola's body faced the cellist.