A Dose of Contemporary

Catalyst Quartet

Thursday, March 19, 2015

7:30 PM

Karla Donehew-Perez, Violin

Jessie Montgomery, Violin

Paul Laraia, Viola

Karlos Rodreguez, Cello

String Quartet No. 1 - Charles Ives

Chorale: Andante con moto

Prelude: Allegro

Offertory: Adagio cantabile

Postlude: Allegro marziale

String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" - Philip Glass

1957: Award Montage

November 25: Ichigaya

Grandmother and Kimitake

1962: Body Building

Blood Oath

Mishima/Closing

In Memory - Joan Tower

-Intermission-

Strum - Jessie Montgomery

Tenebrae - Osvaldo Golijov

String Quartet Op. 11 - Samuel Barber

Molto allegro e appassionato

Adagio

Molto allegro (come prima) - Presto

The Catalyst Quartet is a much younger quartet that likes to play a lot of contemporary music. Naturally I'm not a fan of contemporary music, but I did attend the concert since it is part of the Chamber Music Series and I bought tickets to see the entire series. While the musicianship was fine it didn't mask the overuse of dissonance that has been all too present in an effort to follow certain musical rules at the expense of the music just sounding good. What was interesting is that the Catalyst Quartet certainly lacked the stage presence of more seasoned quartets. For example, after they finished a piece, they would bow, sit down, bow again, and rearrange the violin players (the only professional quartet that didn't have set first and second violinists). It just seemed that outside of playing the music itself, the quartet wasn't really sure what they were doing, almost as if they were playing together for the first time and never really went over things such as bowing at the end of a piece. It really detracted from the performance and would make the Catalyst Quartet not worth a repeat attendance.

Jerusalem Quartet!

Jerusalem Quartet

Thursday, February 19, 2015

7:30 PM

Alexander Pavlovsky, Violin

Sergei Bresler, Violin

Ori Kam, Viola

Kyril Zlotnikov, Cello

Quartet No. 59 in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3 "Rider" - Franz Joseph Haydn

Allegro

Largo assai

Menuetto: Allegretto

Finale: Allegro con brio

String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91 - Béla Bartók
Allegro
Prestissimo, con sordino
Non troppo lento
Allegretto pizzicato
Allegro molto

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden" - Franz Schubert
Allegro
Theme and Variations: Andante con moto
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Presto

This was a truly spectacular performance by the Jerusalem Quartet. The quartet was the most technically sound of all the chamber groups thus far this season; able to masterfully execute all the running passages and in particular the chaos that is the Bartók. I was very impressed with the cellist in particular. The quartet was also the most musically talented of the chamber groups this season, able to play as a group, covering the spectrum of musical expression. I was a huge fan of how they performed the Haydn and Schubert, and they at least made the Bartók bearable instead of the random jumbled mess of sound that it normally sounds like. Hopefully I'll get to see them perform again!

More Chamber Music!

This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of hearing the Takács quartet as part of the UW World Series program. This follows the previous performance by the Miró quartet last November.

Takács Quartet
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
7:30 PM

Edward Dusinberre, Violin
Károly Schranz, Violin
Geraldine Walther, Viola
András Fejér, Cello

Quartet No. 50 in B-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 3 - Franz Joseph Haydn
Vivace assai
Adagio
Menuetto: Allegretto
Finale: Allegro con spirit

String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, Op. 29 - Franz Schubert
Allegro ma non troppo
Andante
Menuetto: Allegretto
Allegro moderato

-Intermission-

String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 - Ludwig van Beethoven
Adagio ma non troppo-Allegro
Presto
Andante con moto, ma non proppo-Poco scherzoso
Alla danza tdesca. Allegro assai
Cavatina. Adagio molto espressivo
Finale: Allegro

Overall I was very impressed with this performance-this quartet has been playing together for a long time, and it shows. All the passages are generally well-coordinated and they were able to play the lighter passages in the Haydn and the heavier parts in the Beethoven with ease. However, there were several things that did leave me unhappy. Firstly, the violist decided to choose her own dress code while the other members wore only black, daring to wear a red shawl. I'm a little old school in believing that there some be some uniformity in the dress. Also, I feel like the second violinist is probably past his prime and seemed to occasionally try to set a new tempo separate from the other members, which seemed to cause some pretty tense moments on the stage. Otherwise I was generally happy with the performance.

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.