The quartet at the conclusion of the concert.
Program
Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Quartet in C Minor, D. 730 "Quartettsatz" (1820).
Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996), Quartet No. 16 in A-flat Major, Op. 130 (1981).
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80 (1847).
Artists: Marc Danel, violin; Gilles Millet, violin; Vlad Bogdanas, viola; Yovan Markovitch, cello.
The quartet is named after it's leader, Marc Danel, and has been around for over 30 years. It's has worldwide presence; for example, in the month of October they have concerts in several cities in the US and in Leuven, Belgium. Naturally this was my first encounter with the ensemble.
The Schubert piece was relatively short (less than 10 minutes) and contains two movements: Allegro assai, and Andante.
Weinberg was a Polish-born Russian composer and pianist, per Wikipedia, which also lists the 159 compositions authored by the composer. The musicians certainly got a workout from the piece - the longest of the three. As with most modern compositions, I spent a lot of time trying to "analyze" what I heard - without much success, as usual. This composer is a favorite of this quartet, which performed the complete quartet cycle in Manchester in 2019.
Mendelssohn's piece would straddle the relatively simplicity of Schubert and denseness of Weinberg. I enjoyed it.
My lack of words in this blog reflects my need to get more familiar with this genre. Indeed I appreciated how the four parts worked with (and sometimes against) one another, but I don't have the vocabulary to describe what I heard.
After finding out about People's Symphony Concerts (PSC) I decided to do a 6-concert subscription (the Solomon series). The whole series cost $90 (plus a 3% fee). Frank Salomon is the third manager in the organization's 125-year history, and has been in the role for 50 years. His predecessor did it for 58 years. I am sure he is a major benefactor as well. Despite the word "symphony" in its name, PSC hosts very few (if any) symphonic concerts.
The concert was reasonably well-attended. The gentleman next to my assigned seat mentioned that the auditorium used to be full pre-pandemic, but hasn't quite worked back up those crowd levels yet. We also commiserated on our inability to understand many of today's compositions. I moved before the concert started (social distancing) and moved to the back row after intermission so I could make a quick exit.
NJ Transit ran smoothly, so I had time to stop by a pizzeria for lunch. Cost about $16 for two slices and a soda.
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