concert report
Last night I went to see the Emerson Quartet, one of the country's best strings quartets, at Tulane. A fabulous concert comprising a late two-mvt/'unfinished' quartet by Haydn (op. 103), Mendelssohn's String Quartet, No. 2, op. 44, and Debussy's String Quartet. For an encore they played a second movement from a/the(?) quartet by Benjamin Britten (wh., I think, was actually my favorite part of the program).
What I love about a string quartet is the intimacy of the ensemble. It lends itself to such a blending of tone that it is almost like one voice. A successfully composed quartet, I think, can really use this intimacy in marvelous ways. Each quartet on the program did this in its unique way. I especially liked the last chord of the slow movement to the Debussy, it was almost like an organ, the way the chord was spaced and the absolute one-ness of the group as a performing ensemble was absolutely spectacular. I was familiar with everything on the program (esp the Debussy) except the Britten encore. I really want to get that whole quartet on a CD. It was really amazing. Some of the techniques and effects that Britten produced were so intriguing. For instance, the way he made one instrument "chase" another so that it almost sounded like a slow reverberation. Or how each instrument tossed around this one particular accented note such that it was the same note, in the same register, and they made it sound like one instrument was playing it, but they were actually tossing it around. Wow!
Comments
Man, I wish I could've heard them, Jeannette. Especially the Britten. I really like his stuff.
Posted by: tuggy | March 24, 2004 11:59 AM
Britten has three numbered string quartets, none of which I have heard yet. I'm most familiar with his "War Requiem" and "Ceremony of Carols." If you'd like to hear the quartets on line (and are willing to register for a password), go to naxos.com, click "composers" on the left. When you find Britten, scroll down to "Chamber Music." This should at least allow you to identify which quartet you heard.
Posted by: Kevin | March 24, 2004 1:28 PM
Sounds nifty. The last time I saw a string quartet they did marvelous music (Brahms and Faure), but the acoustics in the little theater were so awful that I had trouble hearing the softer parts, and I was in the second row.
Posted by: Paul Baxter | March 24, 2004 10:13 PM
Dad is performing the Khachaturian Clarinet Trio with his Settlement Music School chamber group. Each member of the trio will host a performance in his home, and invite friends. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could schedule our performance during your visit in June?
As a side note, the lovely little man that sits next to us at the Kimmel Center is the clarinetist who debuted the Khachaturian Clarinet Trio in the United States in the 1930s. He is also the man who introduced Dad to the Settlement Chamber opportunities.
Posted by: mom2 | March 29, 2004 10:32 AM