A Program of Schubert, Dark Linings and All, From a Long-Awaited Quartet
By STEVE SMITH
Published: June 22, 2009
It is a well-known truth that in classical music, performers and ensembles plan their activities years in advance. Just how far out that planning can extend was revealed by Midge Woolsey in her introduction to a Free for All at Town Hall concert on Sunday. Twin Lions, the nonprofit production company that mounts the series, wanted to book a string quartet — specifically, the
Emerson String Quartet — from the very start, according to Ms. Woolsey, a radio personality on WQXR-FM (which is owned by The New York Times Company). That was seven years ago. Good things come to those who wait.
Or at least to some of them. Hundreds waited in line in the rain on Sunday afternoon to snap up tickets for the Emerson String Quartet’s long-awaited Free for All debut. By 4:30, half an hour before the performance, all the tickets had been distributed. Still, more than a few hardy souls lingered in hopes that a few seats might be released.
Those in attendance were surely not disappointed. On record, the Emerson group has waxed thematic lately: “Intimate Voices,” its
Grammy Award-winning 2006 collection of works by Grieg, Sibelius and Nielsen, was followed in May by “Intimate Letters,” featuring pieces by Janacek and Martinu. But the Town Hall program group stuck to
Schubert (the most-played composer on WQXR, Ms. Woolsey said).
In Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor (D. 804, “Rosamunde”), the Emerson players immediately asserted the qualities for which they have become renowned: impeccable blend and balance among ensemble voices, poise and abundant energy. Philip Setzer, playing first violin, led with sweetly spun solo melodies, his phrasing expressive without excess. The violist, Lawrence Dutton, countered with urgency.
The group’s playing in the jocular, bouncy Menuetto was keenly attuned to that special strain of morbidity you find in Schubert as nowhere else, a propensity for finding a dark lining under every silver cloud. Here, the cellist, David Finckel, stood out for an affecting tenderness in his phrasing. Even in the finale, as insouciant and frisky a movement as Schubert ever wrote, the Emerson players were mindful of lingering shadows.
Eugene Drucker played first violin for the remainder of the concert, which included a bracing dash through the Quartettsatz in C minor (D. 703) and, after intermission, a powerful account of the String Quartet in D minor (D. 810, “Death and the Maiden”). The opening Allegro had a demonic drive and gripping tension; its haunted final section was chilling.
After the songful respite of the Andante, a bristling Scherzo set the stage for a Presto movement of diabolical intensity. No wonder the onset of applause at the end seemed especially explosive.
A version of this article appeared in print on June 23, 2009, on page C3 of the New York edition.
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最近弦樂站著拉奏好像很夯呢！
這篇文章有很多形容詞，還可以順便學學樂評要怎麼寫:)
唉！我家的Emerson CD封面都是他們年輕時的模樣，都認不出來了......
