Linden Quartet. 7/26/2011.

Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall, Princeton University, Row 2, Balcony Center Left.

Quartet members: Sarah McElravy, violin; Catherine Cosbey, violin; Eric Wong, viola; Felix Umansky, cello.

Program
String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat Major, K. 428 Wolfgang Amadeua Mozart
String Quartet in F Major (1903) Maurice Ravel
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 41, No. 1 (1842) Robert Schumann

Because of our travel schedule, this last one was the only concert we could make out of the four Princeton put out this summer. As usual, David and Vivien got the free tickets for us, and we had dinner at Panera Bread, which continues to do a brisk business. It had been quite hot the past couple of weeks, but it cooled down a bit today, so it was a pleasant evening. Our one concern was that we would have to leave the house at 8:30 am the following day to catch a flight to Quebec, so didn’t want to get home too late.

During dinner Vivien showed us a picture taken in October, 2005, the first time we went to a Princeton concert together. The four of us had dinner at Alchemist and Barrister. I looked younger, and heavier, then (so did the others), and had considerably more black in my already-thinning hair.

The quartet is currently in residence as the Graduate Quartet at Yale. The members all appear to be quite young (early 30s?).

Before they began the program, Cosbey (second violin) explained a bit about the Mozart quartet being one of the six “Haydn Quartets” he wrote in honor of his mentor. Knowing that, it was relatively easy to see how the quartet relates to Haydn’s style. The opening line is very chromatic (instead of tonal) in that 9 of the 12 notes are used in the first phrase (which I counted to be 10 notes long). The theme was repeated several times, and I eventually could come to terms with its being Mozartian. In general it is a delightful piece of music, easy on the ears and the mind, and calls for relatively equal partnership among the instruments, which is rare for quartets in my experience, and even rarer for Mozart. The four movements are Allegro no troppo, Andante con moto, Menuetto & Trio, and Allegro vivicae.

My first reactions were: (1) great balance among the instruments, the viola’s sound is unusually clear; (2) why did they have to take all the repeats (David and I argued a bit whether this was true), making the piece about 40 minutes long; (3) the group as a whole sounded surprising weak, especially given how close we were to the stage; and (4) they oftentimes had to tune their instruments between movements, and would take a long time to do so.

Before the Ravel piece, McElravy (first violin) did the introductory notes. Ravel went to the Paris Conservatory and wrote this piece as his exit composition. His teacher Gabriel Faure didn’t like it and had rather harsh words about it; his fellow student, Debussy, however, said it was great and said Ravel shouldn’t even try to change one note. While Faure still has compositions in the repertoire of today’s musicians (I especially like The Requiem), he is nowhere as well-known as Ravel or Debussy. The four movements are Moderato tres doux, Assez vif-Tres rythme, Tres lent, and Vif et agite.

This is an interesting piece, with lots of doubling between a high and low instrument (first violin and viola, for instance), and lots of use of the pizzicato, with the second movement comprising of nearly all pizzicato by the players. The last movement, a kind of free-for-all frenzy, was both enjoyable and exhilarating.

It was about 9:10 pm when we got to the intermission. Now it was Wong’s turn (he is the violist) to describe Schumann’s work. Schumann had this habit of concentrating on one particular type of music (songs, chamber music, e.g.) for several years. He for instance wrote 160+ songs within a couple of years after marrying Clara. This piece was written during his “chamber music” phase.

After the first movement, the violist walked out. We were wondering why: was he upset? Did he break a string? It turns out he had a nose bleed and had to take care of it. The cellist got to kill a bit of time by cracking a couple of rather funny jokes. Wong eventually returned and the quartet completed the program. It was generally quite well-played, but unfortunately more memorable for the break. I guess they can have instruments on stand-by, but not other musicians.

The concert could have gone much better, but with the long breaks between movements, the nose bleed, and this kid and her mother sitting behind us who didn’t whisper as softly as they thought, the overall experience was just so-so. I guess one can only overlook so much during a live performance, and eventually these small things add up to a major negative.

If this group gets the right amount of tutoring, I am sure they can do very well. They still deserved the hearty applause they got, even with all my criticisms. It was close to 10:30 pm when the concert concluded, so we got home quite late. (I am typing this the following day, in Canada.) After we got settled and prepared for our trip, I got about 4 hours sleep last night.