Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University. Orchestra Level (Seat L17, free).
Program
String Quartet No. 23 in F Major, K. 590 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
String Quartet No. 4 "Strange Machines" by Karim Al-Zand (b. 1970).
String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
Artists
Angela Bae, Justin DeFilippis, violins; Benjamin Zannoni, viola; Russell Houston, cello.
This was the last of four concerts for the Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts this year; and was the second one we attended.
Both the Mozart and the Beethoven quartets were the last quartets written by the composers, in June 1790 and October 1826 respectively. The four movements of the Mozart quartet are Allegro moderato; Andante; Menuetto: Allegretto; and Allegro. For Beethoven they are: Allegretto; Vivace; Lento assai, cantante e tranquillo; and "Der schwer gafasste Entschluss" Grave, ma no troppo tratto - Allegro.
Al-Zand is a well-known composer (at least from what was announced from the stage) who now teaches at Rice University. The three movements that comprise his quartet are Alberti Machine; Goldberg Machine; and Mannheim Machine.
The quartet members all look quite young. The quartet itself was formed in 2018 (or soon after), and is named after Antoine Balourdet, a chef at the Taos School of Music. (That's a new one, I guess with so many quartets being formed, it's difficult to find a name that stands out.) They all looked like they enjoyed making music together, with no one dominating the performance. The two violinists took turns being the lead, DeFilippis led the Mozart and Al-Zand pieces, while Bae led the Beethoven. Every now and then there were intonation problems, perhaps unavoidable in a close-up chamber performance.
Ruth Ochs provided some commentary before the Mozart and Beethoven pieces. She pointed out both were the last quartets the composers wrote (but didn't mention when they were written), and that F Major has a pastoral feel to it. For the Beethoven quartet she linked the "Must it be? It Must be." notation in the manuscript to an artists being paid, which I thought trivialized what Beethoven intended to say, whatever that might be. She also mentioned the key of the third movement (D-flat Major) could present intonation problems to the performers. That may be true. I was also under the impression that since composers often choose this key as there are no "open string" notes, thus giving the music a special (melancholy, perhaps) characteristic as the natural resonances are suppressed.
It was quite imaginative for Al-Zand to conceive what the movements of his quartet should be. The "Alberti bass" is a common way to write accompaniment for instrument music (I am familiar with the sound, not not the term), it was used as the basis for the first movement. The name Goldberg brings to mind the Goldberg variations in the music world, and Rube Goldberg inventions in others. The second movement basically is Rube Goldberg ending as the Goldberg theme. The Mannheim movement describes how the sound and fury of a rocket launch end up fizzling out. That is the gist of the description given by DeFilippis (who delivered it in an engaging manner). One could find Al-Zand's description of this work on his website. The break between the second and third movements was difficult to discern.
For encore, the quartet play Haydn's Op. 33, Movement 3, "The Bird."
Today was very warm (mid 90s during the day), so we were thankful the AC in the auditorium was working.
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