Daedalus Quartet. July 25, 2018.

Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University.  Balcony (free).

Program

String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, op. 18 by Beethoven (1770-1827).

Chaconne (2016) by Lerdahl (b. 1943).

String Quartet No. 3 in B flat, op. 67 by Brahms (1833-1897).

Artists

Min-Young Kim, violin; Matilda Kaul, violin; Jessica Thompson, viola; Thomas Kraines, cello.

The two long pieces in the program are in the standard quartet repertoire, and the musicians put in a very enjoyable performance.

The four movements of the Beethoven piece are Allegro; Menuetto; Andante cantabile con variazioni; and Allegro.  For the Brahms piece the four movements are Vivace; Andante; Agitato (Allegretto non troppo); and Poco Allegretto con Variazioni.  It just occurred to me many quartets have four movements, in that sense more akin to a symphony than a concerto, although concertos are usually symphonic in nature.

The violist Thompson talked a bit about Fred Lerdahl, who teaches at Columbia.  The quartet and he has had a long history of collaboration, and the quartet has performed the cycle of Lerdahl’s three quartets.  This work was written for the quartet, and contains the “signature” of notes that spells out part of “Daedalus.”  I couldn’t quite make out the notes the violin was trying to sound out, and she had to attempt it a couple of times to get it right.  Per this website, the notes are D-A-E-D-A-Eb.  The most well-known Chaconne is of course the violin solo by Bach.  Tonight’s piece was also based on an 8-measure melody, which I couldn’t catch, and things went downhill from there.

The program had three movements associated with Chaconne, it was wrong information.  Turns out they were from another piece that was performed last year.

Anne couldn’t come because of babysitting duties.  Peter C came along.  We met up with the Yee’s as usual at Panera Bread.  I was lamenting to David that (i) listening to modern music requires too much use of my left-brain, he also thinks modern music appeals more to logic than emotion; and (ii) I have trouble picking out the viola lines.  So for this concert we both listened to the viola intently.  Beethoven’s was quite hopeless, but the viola’s parts fared better with me for the second two pieces.

I managed to make three of the four concerts this season, and I am glad I did.