Wednesday, 8 October 1997
Lafayette's stellar performance marks opening of
Friends' season
By Ken Keuffel Jr.
The Arizona Daily Star
Victoria, British Columbia, probably doesn't top your
list of great music cities. But the Lafayette String Quartet
may change that.
Last night, the ensemble, in residence at the University
of Victoria School of Music since 1991, offered the
season-opening Arizona Friends of Chamber Music concert at
Leo Rich Theatre.
The performance provided a stellar beginning to the
Friends' 50th-anniversary season; if the remaining concerts
are only half as good as this one, it'll have been quite a
party. I, for one, can't wait for it to continue.
Performed were Barber's String Quartet, transcriptions of
two Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues and Schubert's G-Major
Quartet.
The middle adagio movement of the Barber, you'll recall,
has been transcribed into ``Adagio for Strings,'' a sappy
piece for string orchestra that's become of one classical
music's most enduring easy-listening hits.
During last night's performance the movement emerged as
more serious fare. The listener rediscovered just how
difficult it is to play soft music slowly. The ensemble
found and sustained a tension in the music's extended line
that just kept building and building in intensity.
The only relief, really, came during the ensemble's
precise reading of the work's faster final movement.
Schubert's chamber music is not exactly known for its
concision, and the G-Major Quartet, which concluded the
program, is certainly no exception. You could liken it to
running a marathon up and down glorious-looking mountains.
Last night's performance was long, but its treasures,
illuminated last night with precision and heartfelt
conviction, made it more than worth a listen. Some
highlights: utter sweetness of solos alternated with the
rage of tremolo-flavored crescendos in the second movement.
Short, crisp rhythms of the third scherzo found a
Beethovenlike stature.
Before performing the Shostakovich, Ann
Elliott-Goldschmid, the quartet's first violinist, said a
few words about the group's instruments, all but one of
which were made by the Amatis, the 17th-century Italian
family that passed on its knowledge to Antonio Stradivari.
(The one non-Amati instrument was a Spanish-made cello
belonging to Paula Kiffner, a substitute cellist who filled
in for Pamela Highbaugh; the mellow-sounding instrument once
belonged to Pablo Casals.)
The stunning decorations on the back of Joanna Hood's
viola commemorated a family seal. They prompted gasps of
astonishment from the audience.
Unfortunately, not everything about these pieces (No. 15
and No. 1), which were arranged by Rostislav Dubinsky, the
group's mentor, kept the listener in rapt attention. No. 15,
in particular, seemed merely to highlight a few preciously
skewed harmonies. No. 1, however, contained a robust fugue,
which the ensemble played with vigor and in a way that
captured its humor.
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