THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY LEE TEPLY, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
FOR AT LEAST a couple of hours Monday evening, the frigid outside temperatures were forgotten by the audience in the Chrysler Museum Theater. The London-based Chilingirian String Quartet, brought to Norfolk by the Feldman Chamber Music Society, played with a heated intensity that was well-suited to quartets by Mendelssohn and Beethoven.
From the concert's opening notes, the group's passionate commitment to the music was powerful. Technical difficulties were handled nicely and the sense of ensemble was extraordinarily strong.
But perhaps the nerves were a little too tightly wound. The first violinist's highest string broke within a few minutes. After the string was replaced, the quartet began again amid a heightened sense of drama. Despite the fact that a new string tends to go out of tune quickly, the quartet forged ahead fearlessly, and there were amazingly few intonation problems from that string.
The quartet played to their strengths in the first piece. A tendency to push the tempo ahead increased excitement. The multitude of dynamic details showed a good understanding of the importance of each note in a phrase, and of each phrase in the larger section. Although the outer instruments tended to dominate the musical discourse, this seemed appropriate here. A more delicate shaping of phrases was evident in the peaceful, yet sorrowful, slow movement, after which the frenzied storm returned, leading to a breathless conclusion.
Two pieces by Arvo Part, a contemporary Estonian composer, were wisely chosen to follow the opening selection. They were written in a style that might be called ``emotional minimalism'' - simple patterns repeated and varied with a mesmerizing effect. Although intonation and ensemble problems were evident in the quiet opening, the quartet settled into the music as their sound grew fuller. The pieces had the intended haunting effect.
A monumental Beethoven quartet closed the concert.The expanded form in the first of the ``Razumovsky'' quartets is difficult for both performers and listeners to follow. The Chilingirian Quartet dealt with this problem so convincingly as to make the piece sound logical. They used their fine sense of timing and dynamic control to lead the audience through the complex structure.
There were more problems with intonation and balance than in the earlier pieces, but these did not greatly diminish the overall effect. The two inner movements received particularly sophisticated interpretations. Well-chosen tempos and a gentle rubato gave life to each phrase and shape to the large form. Although Beethoven's contemporaries understood little of this music, it made beautiful sense in this performance. by CNB