THE ALEXANDER STRING QUARTET Press

Sunday, December 24, 2006

THE YEAR IN MUSIC

ANTHONY TOMMASINI

OOKING back over the year, I Canadian Opera Company in Toronto offered an looked vibrant and acted with abandon. But what tried to compile a list of highs imaginative production with each opera staged mattered more was that she sounded vocally and lows in classical music. But by a different director, conducted vibrantly by secure and confident, singing with unforced L Richard Bradshaw. But the big news there was power, shimmering sound and supple phrasing. call me irresponsible; I simply found the company’s splendid new home, an inviting, Imagine this punishing role actually sung, not too many exciting and meaningful sleek and intimate house that seats just 2,000. shouted. achievements to dwell on the 6. This month at Zankel Hall, the French pianist disappointments. So here are some of The Shostakovich centennial Pierre-Laurent Aimard brought his staggering the most memorable events: technique, searching intellect and fantastical was celebrated by the Emerson 1. On paper a Britten evening may not have imagination to a program of 24 études that was seemed the most daring way for the English String Quartet at Alice Tully itself an artistic creation. It was fascinating to tenor Ian Bostridge to begin his Perspectives Hall and the Alexander String hear musical resonances among varied works by series at Carnegie Hall. But that program, in Ligeti, Debussy, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Zankel Hall in March, presented this Quartet at the Baruch Scriabin, Bartok and Liszt. As a last-minute adventurous artist in Britten’s mercurial song Performing Arts Center with surprise, Mr. Aimard also played the premiere of an impetuous, finger-twisting piano piece, cycle “Winter Words,” on poems by Thomas competing cycles of the 15 Hardy, and in the neglected Canticles, five “Caténaires,” by Elliott Carter, who was there to take a bow on his 98th birthday. unorthodox works for voices and instruments on quartets, performed in texts ranging from Jacobean metaphysical poetry chronological order. It was a 7. Happily, the year brought new recordings to to T. S. Eliot. Mr. Bostridge gave haunting, assuage a loss. In July the incomparable mezzo- deeply expressive and keenly intelligent special privilege to hear the soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died at 52. performances. dynamic Alexander Two recordings released this year will enhance her legacy while enriching the repertory with 2. The Shostakovich centennial was performances in Baruch recent works by her husband, Peter Lieberson. A celebrated by the Emerson String Quartet College’s intimate 176-seat highlight of a Lieberson recording on the Bridge at Alice Tully Hall and the Alexander label is a live 2004 version of his quizzical and String Quartet at the Baruch Performing auditorium. Seldom have these harmonically spiky “Rilke Songs,” with Ms. Arts Center with competing cycles of the anguished, playful, ironic and Hunt Lieberson accompanied by the incisive 15 quartets, performed in chronological pianist Peter Serkin. And just this month masterly works seemed so Nonesuch released a live 2005 recording of Mr. order. It was a special privilege to hear profoundly personal. Lieberson’s “Neruda Songs,” settings of five the dynamic Alexander performances in love sonnets by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

Baruch College’s intimate 176-seat 4. Peter Gelb, the new general manager of the This is music of subdued intensity and aching auditorium. Seldom have these Metropolitan Opera, deserves credit for his beauty, sublimely performed by Ms. Hunt anguished, playful, ironic and masterly overdue, energetic and multifaceted public Lieberson and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, outreach efforts. And bringing Anthony conducted by James Levine. works seemed so profoundly personal. Minghella’s visually arresting, highly stylized Sadly, there were other notable deaths as well, 3. Two notable new productions of Wagner’s production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” to including several legendary women of opera: the daunting “Ring des Nibelungen” came in close New York in September was a bold way for Mr. sopranos Birgit Nilsson, Anna Moffo, Elisabeth succession. In July, the Bayreuth Festival in Gelb to inaugurate his tenure. Schwarzkopf and Astrid Varnay, as well as the Germany introduced an engrossingly modern supremely gifted, if often chaotic, conductor and staging by the playwright Tankred Dorst, which 5. The dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt had a stage director Sarah Caldwell. Gyorgy Ligeti, a presented the gods, dwarfs and mortals as souls career milestone at the Lyric Opera of Chicago composer who loomed over the last decades of forgotten by the world who keep trying to relive with her first staged performances of the title the 20th century, also died. Together, these their stories. The production was dominated by role in Strauss’s “Salome,” beginning in artists gave us countless highs. the organic, intense and insightful conducting of October. After a long period of adjusting to her Christian Thielemann. Then, in September, the slimmed-down postsurgical body, Ms. Voigt

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK String Quartets Reveal the Private Shostakovich

By Anthony Tommasini

lmost by default, the string quartet anguished and dangerously modern at a with premonitions of death and perhaps is the most intimate of musical time when the Soviet Union’s cultural thoughts of suicide. In a letter to a friend, Agenres, intended for performance in police were cracking down on musical written days after he had finished the work, intimate spaces. The music is laid out in expression. he called it an “ideologically deficient four voices, one instrument per voice, and quartet that nobody needs” and described it the string instruments are all of the same The intimacy of the music as his own memorial. The quotations from sound world. Even when Haydn creates came through with enhanced other works in this score (the Cello Con- mischief in his string quartets, there is certo No. 1 and several symphonies) seem a something tender and wistful about the power and poignancy in the summing up. humor. And when Bartok goes to the dark Alexander quartet’s vibrant, Shostakovich, who was not a string side in his quartets, the pulverized, vehe- probing, assured and aptly player, did not compose his first quartet ment and dissonant music somehow sounds until 1938, when he was 32. But by his last confessional. volatile performances. decade (he died in 1975, at 68), the genre So it’s not surprising that Shostakovich, Publicly Shostakovich was forced to was at the center of his output. The last five the most inscrutable composer of the 20th write paeans to the state, like the cantata quartets date from those years. century, seems at his most revealing in his “The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland.” The Alexander String Quartet, based in 15 string quartets. Some commentators are Privately he wrote these quartets, which San Francisco, is celebrating its 25th cautious about seeing these works this way, were not performed until after Stalin’s anniversary. The first violinist, the among them Eric Bromberger, who wrote death in 1953. The Fifth teems with astrin- excellent Zakarias Grafilo, joined in 2002. the excellent program notes for the Alexan- gent harmonies, bouts of anger, obsessive The other members are Frederick Lifsitz, der String Quartet’s survey of the repetitions and a waltz movement so long- second violinist; Paul Yarbrough, violist; Shostakovich quartets. That five-concert winded and convoluted that you don’t for a and Sandy Wilson, cellist. They have series ended on Monday at the Baruch Per- moment trust its graceful pose. recorded the works for Foghorn Classics; forming Arts Center. Sometimes the quartets seem revealing the first volume was recently released, the It can be no coincidence that despite themselves. The Quartet No. 6, in second is imminent. Shostakovich wrote 15 symphonies and 15 G, was composed in 1956, during the first On Monday night the Alexander players string quartets. But Mr. Bromberger is cor- month of Shostakovich’s marriage to his showed understandable signs of fatigue rect that it oversimplifies things to see the second wife, a captivating party official. after their weeklong Shostakovich mara- symphonies as Shostakovich’s public His troubled first marriage to Nina Varzar, thon. Occasionally their concentration statements and the quartets as his private a physicist, ended with her death in 1954. slipped, notably in the tragically elegiac ones. After all, there are inconsolable pas- The Sixth Quartet is sunny: the music of a final work. But the chance to experience all sages in the symphonies and episodes of middle-aged man in love with a young 15 quartets played in chronological order genial Neo-Classicism in the quartets. wife, it would seem. Yet despite its playful with such intensity and engrossing Yet given the nature of the genre, character, it is structurally rigorous and commitment in a perfect chamber music Shostakovich could not help letting his elusive. Did Shostakovich subliminally hall was a privilege. deepest feelings come out. It goes with the known better? Within three years the mar- The Emerson String Quartet, whose territory. The intimacy of the music came riage had ended in divorce. justly praised recording of the Shostakovich through with enhanced power and The renowned Eighth Quartet, in C quartets was released six years ago by poignancy in the Alexander quartet’s minor, was composed in 1960, when Deutsche Grammophon, is nearing the vibrant, probing, assured and aptly volatile Shostakovich went to Dresden. The city midpoint of its five-concert survey of the performances, given in an ideal hall for was still blighted from the devastating 15 works at Alice Tully Hall, which, at chamber music that seats just 174. Allied bombing in 1945. He dedicated this nearly 1,100 seats, is far too big a space. The confessional nature of certain powerfully bleak work “to the memory of Still, the Emerson players are immersed in Shostakovich quartets is impossible to the victims of fascism and war.” these works, and their series remains a ma- ignore. He suppressed the Fourth, in D, and Yet Laurel Fay, in her acclaimed biogra- jor event of the season. the Fifth, in B flat, written in 1949 and phy of Shostakovich, amasses persuasive For my part, having heard seven pro- 1952, rightly fearing that the music was too evidence that he was overcome at the time grams of Shostakovich quartets on seven consecutive days, far from feeling drained, I was transported.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

The Alexander Quartet and the Emerson Quartet Perform Shostakovich

By Anthony Tommasini

pparently the coincidence of two modern auditorium doubles as a lecture stayed together and worked with integrity overlapping Shostakovich string hall, so there are elevated rows of for nearly 30 years, the Alexander players Aquartet cycles in New York is ergonomic seats with ample leg room. held their own. It’s a curiosity of the just that, a coincidence. But the smallness of the space and its classical music business that one deserv- As part of Lincoln Center’s celebration vibrant acoustics are the selling points. ing ensemble garners Grammy Awards, of the Shostakovich centennial, the Chamber music, as its name implies, worldwide fame and standing ovations at Emerson String Quartet is performing all was meant to be performed in chamber New York’s premiere performing arts 15 of his seminal quartets in chronologi- rooms. Alice Tully Hall, though specifi- complex, whereas another deserving cal order in five concerts. The series cally built for chamber music, seats ensemble plays before a small, half-filled began on Thursday night at Alice Tully nearly 1,100 and feels bigger than that. hall at a college. (A ticket price of $25, Hall, and the place was packed. Devotees of chamber music have long $15 for students and or those 65 and Across town on Tuesday and Wednes- adjusted to hearing string quartets and over, is another inducement; tickets for day nights, at the Baruch Performing Arts such played in Alice Tully Hall. On the Emerson concerts are $60 each.) Center at Lexington Avenue and East Thursday night, in the first three works, The playing of the Emerson Quartet 25th Street, the Alexander String Quartet the Emerson played with its trademark may have had more shades of character presented the first two programs in its burnished sound, interpretive insight and and imaginative flights. Yet I was five-concert survey of the Shostakovich passion. Still, having just heard this engrossed by the eerie restraint and, when string quartets, also offered in chrono- music performed by the Alexander called for, incisive attack of the logical order. Quartet, I found the difference Alexander’s performances. The first Though based in San Francisco, the overwhelming. violinist, Zakarias Grafilo, was especially Alexander Quartet has been presenting a At Baruch the vibrations from the low admirable for his focused and penetrating short residency each semester at Baruch strings seemed to travel through the floor sound. College for 20 years. When its players and up your legs. You felt enveloped by Still, ranking these estimable realized that their Shostakovich series the music. At Alice Tully Hall, for all the ensembles is not the point. Both surveys would coincide with the Emerson’s, they intensity of the Emerson’s playing, the are distinguished. So far, though, the adjusted one concert date so as not to sound seemed to come from a distance. Alexander Quartet, playing in a perfect conflict. During frenetic passages of Quartet No. hall for chamber music, provided the With all respect to the Emerson String 2, the splattered intonation of Eugene more visceral experience of Shostako- Quartet, I must say that it was particu- Drucker in the first violin part, and the vich’s most intriguing and personal larly exciting to hear the first six of grittiness of the collective sound during works. Shostakovich’s elusive and remarkable some pummeled episodes, which went string quartets played in the first two over the edge to coarseness, suggested The final two programs in the Alexander programs of the Alexander’s series at that the musicians were trying to pump Quartet’s series are tonight and Monday Baruch. up the music to make an impact in the night at 8; the Emerson Quartet’s series The Alexander has the enormous large, acoustically dry hall. continues tomorrow at 5 p.m., May 4 and advantage of playing in an ideally Without taking anything away from May 11 at 8 p.m., and May 14 at 5 p.m. intimate hall that seats just 174. This the superb Emerson musicians, who have

Lawrence Journal-World

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Review: Jazz-classical collaboration pleases Lied Center fans

By Chuck Berg

he challenge of melding jazz with ensemble placed around the Beaux Arts For its part, the exquisite Alexander classical has had a long and String Quartet, plus a harp and jazz injected Sauter’s spiky yet flowing T checkered history. Early on, there drumming great Roy Haynes. tapestries with unerring jazz-inflected was George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Hailed upon its 1962 release on the phrasings and dynamics. Blue” (1923) and similar symphonic jazz Verve label, “Focus” became, quite Throughout, and in particular during experiments. Regardless of how unexpectedly, a hit recording. The the turbo-charged “Night Rider” and “I’m appealing, there was just one problem. combination of Getz’s quintessential Late,” violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Such standards of today’s orchestral pops lyricism and Sauter’s lush yet also Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarbrough repertory lacked improvisation. harmonically and rhythmically astringent and cellist Sandy Wilson sounded as if Following World War II, with writing captured ears, hearts and they had lived with Marsalis’s impro- increasing numbers of serious musicians imaginations. vised interpretations forever. In fact, this experienced in both jazz and classical Due to the daunting heights of the was their first ever performance of looking to artistically bridge the gap, Getz-Sauter collaboration, “Focus” has “Focus” with Marsalis. Amazing! “third stream” was coined for genuinely lived almost entirely through the seminal Paving the way for “Focus” was a new amalgams of improvisation and Verve recording. stunning set of excerpts from Maurice through-written composition. Here one Its resurrection by Marsalis and the Ravel, Terry Riley and Wayne Peters by found the still absorbing third-stream Alexander was therefore audacious. On the Alexander incorporating jazz-nuanced confluences by Ralph Burns, Stan Friday, the standing ovations and cheers elements also deployed by Sauter. In the Kenton, J.J. Johnson, Bill Russo and signaled that Marsalis and friends had second set, Marsalis and all-star band- Gunther Schuller. made “Focus” its own. mates bassist Eric Revis and drummer On Friday night, taking a cue from the Marsalis, after stints as leader of Jay Jeff “Tain” Watts, dug deep on two Lied Center’s seasonal promotion of Leno’s “Tonight Show Band” and with originals, the contemplative “The “jazz and classical music crossroads,” an Sting, has become one of our brightest Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” and enthusiastic, 1,000-plus audience came to and most committed jazz players. In the earthy “Bluetain.” check out the third-stream for itself in six-part “Focus,” his tenor saxophone It was a stunning night. One hopes that Branford Marsalis Trio and the sailed across the registers, fleshing out the Marsalis-Alexander version of Alexander String Quartet. tenderly wrought out sub-tones and reedy Sauter’s “Focus” will soon be recorded to The performers had found the perfect punctuations at the bottom, while in the complement and therefore enlarge our vehicle, composer Eddie Sauter’s still middle and top registers “singing” with a appreciation of Getz’s iconic treatment breathtaking “Focus” (1961), a six-part soaring blues-tinged lyricism that brought and, indeed, the third-stream itself. suite written for tenor saxophone giant sections such as “I Remember When” to Stan Getz, with an enlarged string vibrantly pulsing and poignant life.

Albuquerque Journal

Monday, September 22, 2008

Chamber Music Albuquerque

By D.S. Crafts

pening its sixty-eighth season, The Second Quartet is not often played, Chamber Music Albuquerque but the Alexanders make as impressive Odemonstrates once again it can case for the work as I have yet heard. The bring the very best performers to New signature feature of all four movements is Mexico. The Alexander String Quartet, a driving intensity bordering on the manic. with a string of prestigious recordings to It’s almost as if the composer is taking out its name, took the stage of the Simms his anger and frustration on the music, and Center for the Performing Arts Sunday the ensemble held nothing back in that afternoon for a program of Mozart, regard. The first movement, Overture: Shostakovich and Riley. Moderato con moto, opens with a phrase Having recorded the entire Beethoven that might easily be mistaken for Bartok and Shostakovich Quartets, the group with its Hungarian rhythm. The slow displays a remarkable zeal in interpre- second movement might be accurately tation coupled with a hearty opulence of described as an accompanied cadenza tone in everything it plays. featuring the warm, impassioned playing The concert began with Mozart’s so- of first violinist Zakarias Grafilo. The called “Hunt” Quartet in B-flat major, one lugubrious waltz begins softly in the cello of six quartets he dedicated to Haydn. The (Sandy Wilson) with the remainder of the opening phrase suggested to some of its group eventually building to an almost early listeners the sound of a hunting horrific climax before settling back to the horn. Given the robust rendition by the bleak spirit of the opening. Violist Paul Alexanders, one could easily picture Yarbrough introduced the unmistakably galloping horses across the Austrian Russian theme of the final movement countryside. The Menuetto had a bounce before the group put it through four high to it, full of gaiety and joviality just short pitch variations. of carefree. They took the slow Adagio a Sandwiched between these two pieces tad faster than I have heard it before, but was the Mythic Birds Waltz by Terry never losing any of the detail. Riley—“Waltz” being used purely as Consequently, the final Allegro assai was metaphor. Riley is often referred to as the necessarily brisk with a cumulative energy originator of musical minimalism (a driving the music to a most satisfying dubious distinction). He has moved on conclusion. from that style—-sort of—-but not before The Quartet No. 2 by Dmitri Shosta- the damage was done. kovich was written in 1944 in the midst of Written for himself and a sitar player, the Second World War, during which he the work vacillates between passages of had already composed two symphonies. rhythmic acceleration (the most effective Former radio commentator Dan Haik bits) and slower sections. Certainly the remarked to me, “It’s Shostakovich’s piece had the benefit of what was cheeriest quartet,” a comment both quin- seemingly an exemplary performance. tessentially ironic as well as completely true in comparison to its thirteen siblings.

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Double tribute breaks new ground

By Herman Trotter

nniversary tributes to composers extraordinary that it deserves special always are well intended, but commentary. Aoften more politically correct than The work, written during and after enlightening. World War II, is full of the angst of war In observing the 250th birth anniver- and communist oppression, all of which sary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and apply equally to our presently troubled the 100th of Dmitri Shostakovich, the world. The opening theme is deceptively Alexander Quartet came up with a whimsical, even flip. But in the following formula and a transcendent performance skewed waltz movement, a dissolute that really broke some new ground. quality permeates the music with eerie, The group opened with an adagio groping spiccato pianissimo figures, while movement from the 14-year-old Mozart’s the stabbing attacks of the following Quartet No. 1, K. 80, full of light, but movement were executed with superb probing lyricism, then presented the first precision and the unexpected sudden Buffalo performance of Mozart’s tran- cutoff at the end took many listeners’ scription of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in breath away. E flat from Book II of the Well-Tempered The following adagio was wonderfully Clavier, somber but structurally trans- biting and introspective, while the con- parent. cluding movement recapitulated the A performance of Mozart’s Quartet in work’s tensions and some of its early C, K. 465, called the “Dissonant” Quartet, innocence before ending in sardonic, completed the Mozart tribute with a ghostly quietude that, again, had the entire performance that balanced seriousness of audience holding its breath. intent with a lightness of texture, all of The Alexander musicians were so in which imbued the music with a luminous control of the music’s emotional contours clarity. and lurches, and so spiritually attuned to Shostakovich paid tribute to Bach with Shostakovich’s message that they seemed 24 preludes and fugues for piano, and the not so much to be playing the music as Shostakovich tribute opened with No. 15 breathing it. in D flat minor, full of folk-like lilt and The Russian writer Ilya Ehrenberg once saw-toothed angularity. said: “Music has the great advantage of Forgive the brevity, but I must confess being able to tell everything without that the performance of the concluding mentioning anything.” This was one of Shostakovich Quartet No. 3 was so those performances.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

The Septuagenarian and the Educator

By Fred Kirshnit

he String Quartet No. 2 of Leos later performed the entire work, the of the one offered by the Pacifica Quartet Janacek has acquired an extramu- Alexander Quartet, supplemented the at Alice Tully Hall last Wednesday. Not T sical life in recent years. Now a lecture by sharing individual passages. better nor worse, mind you, but thor- favorite subject for social historians and This is a particularly effective and oughly different. psychologists, it often appears in winning formula. Where the younger Pacifica players programs wherein the management has A show of hands indicated that almost exaggerated the ponticello effects - that assumed that an entire evening of music all the audience members were unfamiliar is, bowing near the bridge — the will not be enough to hold an audience’s with the piece, but none of them can now Alexander group did a more polished job attention. make this claim. Mr. Kapilow is a born of integrating them into the work as a Thus this passionate ode written by a educator. An enthusiastic and diminutive whole. Where the Pacifica was exuberant, man of 74 to the 36-year-old object of his fellow, he is especially adept at physi- the Alexander was measured. Consider- desire (whom he met when she was 25) is cally following the music around the ing that this piece is all about age differ- combined with readings of their epistles, quartet, making it instantly intelligible for ence, this contrast was especially rele- or else becomes fodder for thespian pres- the uninitiated. He is also able to discuss vant. entations. Apparently, Janacek’s subter- music on two simultaneous levels, thus The Alexander has a big sound that fuge in changing the name of the piece satisfying neophytes and sophisticates would be perfect for Beethoven. But from “Love Letters” to “Intimate Letters” alike. In this lecture, he adroitly explored Janacek requires more delicacy, less was not enough to quench the public’s Janacek’s colorful ability to move from bombast. Eloquent understatement was interest in its subtext. the diatonic to the pentatonic, but assured missing in both recent performances. Kamila Stoesslova was indeed an those in the audience who may not be Still, this was a solid effort. exotic beauty — Jewish, dark, with a hint conversant with these terms that all they The Alexander players expertly gave of the Gypsy — and the composer of this really needed to do was “get it in their the erratic dances of the final missive just white-hot music takes only seconds to ear.” the right sense of being offkilter. It is this introduce her in the viola part, which I was particularly intrigued with Mr. rhythmic awkwardness that leads to the employs a recognizable Romany scale. Kapilow’s distinction between “together” final thoughts of death, of being out of The exoticism of the work as a whole and “at the same time,” an extremely sync with the universe. This is extremely owes its spicy flavor to the flutterings of important, though overlooked, musical difficult music to pull off, but the the septuagenarian’s heart at a time when concept. The ending of the second letter’s Alexander ensemble rallied for a thrilling he was obsessed with thoughts of aging. Vivace section, enunciated by the quartet, conclusion. And we all knew it because As a statement of yearning, it rivals the was a perfect example of how players not we had just learned about the piece’s steamiest efforts of Franck or Wagner. performing together can be a positive nuances. The piece was the subject of Rob trait. I would love to attend a lecture by Rob Kapilow’s lecture at the Walter Reade After intermission, the quartet Kapilow about a piece I do not like. I Theater on Monday evening. As in other (Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, have the distinct feeling that I would installments of his What Makes It Great violins; Paul Yarbrough, viola; Sandy come away with a newfound and series, Mr. Kapilow discussed this piece Wilson, cello) performed the entire piece delighted appreciation. of music and offered examples for his straight through. arguments at the piano. The group that This rendition was the polar opposite

Sunday, June 27, 2004

Mozart: The “Haydn Quartets” Alexander String Quartet Foghorn Classics (3 CDs)

By Joshua Kosman CHRONICLE MUSIC CRITIC

——————

he Alexander String Quartet, San Francisco’s purveyor of vibrant Tclassicism and gritty contemporary music alike, continues to make splendid records. The group’s fine new release, a wise and expansive account of Mozart’s six string quartets dedicated to Haydn, makes clear what a mistake it would be to overlook their efforts. The performances are lithe, witty, and full of elegant touches both large and small; they boast a crisp, well-recorded sound that brings the listener into intimate contact with the players; and they encompass both the plain-spoken eloquence and sometimes hard-won intricacy of Mozart’s most consistent achievement in the genre. From the winsome vitality of the opening G-Major Quartet, K. 387, to the shadowy contrapuntal effects of the final “Dissonant” Quartet, the Alexanders bring a spirit of fervor and alertness to each piece.

The Strad October 2004

REVIEWS: CDS

Renascence

Bartók String Quartet no. 6 Ravel String Quartet in F major Bach (arr. Mozart) Fugue no. 7 in E-flat major BWV 876

Alexander String Quartet FOGHORN CLASSICS CD1984 www.foghornclassics.com

This may seem on the face of it an odd combina- in the Schumannesque dotted march rhythms of tion of pieces, although in the sleeve notes Eric the second movement. Indeed such is the group’s Bromberger goes some way towards justifying it, combined intensity and concentration that such explaining that it’s all to do with various forms of passages sound utterly inevitable. regeneration — the album’s title is Renascence. Nevertheless, there is a whiff of tonal Accordingly, Bartók develops the original Mesto sophistication and lack of earthiness that some Introduction to his Sixth Quartet’s finale into an Bartók admirers may feel leaves the darker entire movement; Ravel creates his quartet aspects of the score understated. It is this quality, cyclically out of two basic melodic shapes which however, that makes the Alexander’s Ravel so metamorphose in various different ways; and the utterly compelling. Without upsetting the Classical Bach fugue is all about revisiting a central idea purity that lies at the heart of this glorious work, constantly replenished by changes in contrapuntal the players radiate as much affectionate warmth context. as the music will take, bolstered by an exception- One of the main problems with the Bartók is its ally full and vivid recording. For the Bach fugue frequent use of textures and rhythmic profiles that they create a viol-like, almost vibratoless sound wouldn’t sound out of place in, say, Mendelssohn. world of noble restraint. It is a measure of the Alexander Quartet’s success that it avoids any hint of ‘wrong-note’ music, even —Julian Haylock

Monday, April 26, 2004

Meridian Arts Ensemble, Alexander String Quartet

hile the Alexander String “Beyond the Curve.” The group knows Quartet and the Meridian Arts how to turn up the volume, and the hall WEnsemble gave fine perform- shook with exuberant sound of Frank ances in their own right Saturday night at Zappa “Echidna’s Arf.” Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of The Alexander String Quartet worked Congress, there was no real connection on a much more narrow and focused between the two halves of the program canvas, deploying a laserlike precision to except in showing the extremes within the render more inwardly drawn works. chamber music repertoire. After the spiky sound of Stravinsky’s The Meridian Arts Ensemble, a brass Three Pieces for String Quartet, the and percussion sextet, brought an quartet gave a pulsing reading of Shostak- alternately jazzy, rock-inspired and ovich’s String Quartet in F-sharp Minor, modernist sound to David Sanford’s Op. 108. Beethoven’s String Quartet in F, “Corpus,” a carefully constructed work Op. 135, slipped into an ethereal world that places a serious chorale melody about as far from the previous in-your- within various musical climates. The face brass works as you could possibly Meridian deployed an impressive array of imagine. effects and subtle variations in tempo, color and rhythm in Elliott Sharp’s —Daniel Ginsberg

The Virginia Gazette Saturday, November 20, 2004

Beautiful music from string quartet

The Chamber Music Society of its beautifully blended sound to its evenly Williamsburg presents the Alexander distributed talent to it interpretative skill, String Quartet, with Zakarias Grafilo the ensemble displayed musical sensitivity and Frederick Lifsitz, violin; Paul and savvy. Yarbrough, viola; and Sandy Wilson, While occasional post performance cello; in the Mozart String Quartet in E- comment was heard concerning the flat Major, K. 428; Shostakovich String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor; and compatibility of the works presented, the Brahms String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat talent of the Alexander brought to each Major; in the Williamsburg Library Arts was never in dispute. Center Theater, November 9. To the Mozart, the foursome brought nuance and heightened coordination and interpretation that made the work’s mostly The Alexander String Quartet cheerful nature feel sunny and bright. Of continued the Chamber Music Society’s similar nature was the Brahms, written current season with a finely played during one of his happier periods. program that allowed the group to display Largely relying on folk-inspired idioms, its markedly mature sound and musician- the work was played with brilliance and ship. concentration that impressed. The Alexander appeared here in 1994 However, the work that remains in and, with the exception of the principal memory as the focal point of the affair violin, has maintained the same mem- was the Shostakovich, with its distinctive bership, including the violist and cellist plaintive lines and moods. While only 11 who founded the ensemble in 1981. So, minutes long, the musical minutes were the Alexander approaches its music- mesmerizing, most particularly in the making with expected maturity and combination of strings and haunting cohesion that come with time and sounds, not to mention the meticulous constancy. care and interpretive depths the Alexander As the Alexander launched into the provided this finely etched and emo- opening Mozart, it was quickly evident tionally appealing selection. that the group is superbly matched. From —John Shulson

The News-Gazette Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

Saturday, October 4, 2003

Alexander Quartet provides memorable musical evening

By JOHN FRAYNE

ld friends, with one new face, alcoholic and non-alcoholic) were given apparently intended to kill himself came back to the Foellinger Great out in the lobby, and, taking the wine into afterward. In the event, he joined the OHall on Wednesday night for a the hail, we toasted, with Michael Ross party instead. Ironies abound. long evening of distinguished, serious, and the Alexanders, the health of The Alexanders played the slow but thoroughly enjoyable chamber music. chamber music. beginning with great feeling and the The Alexander Quartet has been here The program might be irreverently violent and hysterical middle movements before, offering throughout the 2001- described as a “Beethoven Sandwich,” with dervish-like abandon. The tragic and 2002 season a complete cycle of two Beethoven quartets with a resigned closing pages were played with Beethoven’s Quartets, capping the season Shostakovich quartet as filling. The deep empathy, and long seconds followed with the premiere of “Rise Chanting” by evening began with the Second Quartet the final notes before applause erupted. Augusta Read Thomas. This time they of the famous three “Razumovsky” Saving the best wine (or champagne) came with a new first violinist, Zakarias Quartets, a group which is one of the for the last was the subtext of this Grafilo, whose education and training are crowning achievements of Beethoven’s concert. The playing of the “Razumovsky centered on the San Francisco area, middle period. This work is the longest of No. 3,” Beethoven’s Ninth Quartet, was a where the quartet has a home base. the triad and, in the opinion of some triumph. This is a wonderful work, full of Grafilo balances the geography of the, critics, the most serious and perhaps boundless energy and opportunities for a group; second violinist Frederick Lifsitz “problematic.” first-rate quartet to demonstrate their is from Boston, Paul Yarbrough, viola, is The fresh and lyrical playing of ensemble virtuosity. The Alexander from Florida, and Sandy Wilson, cello, is Grafilo was obvious from the start. This Quartet rose to the occasion with from England. group evidently knows the music superbly eloquent playing. Let me single During the pre-concert talk by the intimately, and plays it with intensity and out Sandy Wilson’s pizzicato playing in quartet, Grafilo’s “fitting in” to the group deep sympathy. This quartet made a good the slow movement. during the last 15 months was the main opener, but more exciting fare was to In the finale, Grafilo’s virtuoso playing topic. He has faced many challenges: come. was matched by frenzied playing by the learning all the Shostakovich quartets The Shostakovich Quartet has that rest of the quartet. Beethoven, with all his and, in all, adding between 40 to 50 which many quartets have not, an seriousness, knew how to work au quartets to his repertory. Judging by the exciting and fascinating origin and audience. Waves of applause followed, performances last night, the quartet made setting. The composer wrote it in 1960 in and the quartet returned, wearing blue the right choice in getting Grafilo. He is a Dresden, amid evidences of the baseball caps. Lifsitz said the caps were fine violinist, with a clear attractive tone firebombing of 1945, and dedicated it “to gifts from the students of University High and virtuosity to spare for the show the victims of fascism and war.” It School, where quartet members had been passages for the first violin. seemed to be intended as an equivalent to guests during their visit. After removing The Alexander Quartet has been Strauss’ tone poem, “A Hero’s Life.” It is the hats, the quartet played as encore an around for 23 years, and Yarbrough and full of references to Shostakovich’s E-flat fugue from Bach’s “Well- Wilson have been with the group from previous works, and its first theme is a Tempered Clavier,” arranged by none the start. Another example of year- musical equivalent, in German musical other than Mozart. In its dignified and counting opened the evening. This is the notation, of four letters of his name: graceful beauty, it was the perfect ending 25th anniversary of the organization “DSCH.” The most striking detail is that to a memorable evening. Chamber Music America. Small plastic he, faced with the dilemma of whether to glasses of champagne (with a choice of join the Soviet Communist Party,

Wednesday, December 6, 2000

Alexander String Quartet Shows Confident Versatility

Music Review

By JOSEF WOODARD SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

n Monday at Cal State Northridge, featured a thoroughly Modernist in the first of three performances countenance. The players relished the Oin the Music Guild chamber music series, the Alexander String Quartet This is a group served up a solid, well-rounded feast of works by the three masters of the quartet deep in its element, form spanning three centuries — Haydn, firm in its stride. Beethoven and Bartók. They brought to each composer’s work a requisite distinct hushed, coiled enigma of its second character. movement, the brusque whimsy of its The San Francisco-based Alexander, pizzicato adventures, and its overall formed in 1981, is making a return structural blend of care and abandon. engagement with the Music Guild, and for The Alexander is also well up on good reason. This is a group deep in its Beethoven, having recorded the complete element, firm in its stride. quartets for a nine-CD set last year. Its Haydn’s Quartet in C, the “Emperor,” take on the Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132, with its slow movement familiar after-the- was engaging and richly understood. fact as the German national anthem, They seemed to comprehend that the heart emerged here as a model of gentility. of the work is the emotional third Next up, Bartók’s masterful Fourth movement, a hymn to recuperation after Quartet — a piece that tends to steal the one of Beethoven’s bouts of illness. show when it is this well-played —

Thursday, March 2, 2000

Alexander String Quartet Yielding Greater Riches

Dramatic, thoughtful program of late works at Herbst

By Joshua Kosman ever-greater technical mastery on the styles CHRONICLE MUSIC CRITIC and strategies of his youth, and the ensemble —————— — which spent last year performing all 16 of he Alexander String Quartet has been a the Beethoven quartets — delivered it with fixture on the Bay Area scene for so fleet brilliance and an apt sense of rhythmic Tlong now that it becomes all too easy to freedom, especially in the outer movements. take the group for granted. Tuesday’s superb The slow movement, though, was the crown recital in Herbst Theatre served as a cautionary of this performance, its densely woven chords reminder not to make that mistake. and long-breathed melodies rendered with Since 1989, the Alexanders — violinists sumptuous allure. Ge-Fang Yang and Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarbrough and cellist Sandy Wilson — Impassioned Janacek have been quartet-in-residence with both San Janacek’s Second Quartet, subtitled “Inti- Francisco Performances (presenter of Tues- mate Letters,” is a protestation of love, like day’s concert) and San Francisco State Uni- nearly everything he wrote in the last decades versity. of his life. In the gnarly, impassioned writing During that time, the adventurousness and of this remarkable score, brought to sinewy youthful vigor that marked the group’s early life by the Alexander Quartet, it’s impossible performances seem to have been supplemented to miss the force of the composer’s astonishing by a richer and more dark-hued ensemble infatuation with the young Kamila Stosslova. sound, as well as greater interpretive clarity. The evening’s most impressive music-mak- The results were both thoughtful and dramatic. ing, though, came after intermission, with the group’s vibrant and thrillingly cogent per- Final Quartets formance of Mendelssohn’s F-Minor String For this event, the group offered an inter- Quartet. esting program that featured the final quartets Written during the few months between the of Beethoven, Janacek and Mendelssohn. sudden death of his beloved sister Fanny and These are all late works, naturally, but they his own death (of grief, more or less), this is a show their composers reacting differently to dark elegy in all but name. The group’s play- the gathering twilight. ing caught the music’s air of desolation in the Beethoven’s F-Major Quartet, Op. 135, for wild, driven tremolos of the first movement all its existential baggage and the radiant ex- and the breathless rush of the finale. pansiveness of the hymnlike slow movement, As an encore, the group gave a bright-hued faces the end with relative equanimity. Here is account of the fourth movement from Beetho- the composer looking back with clear eyes and ven’s Op. 130.

Monday, June 3, 2002

Alexander String Quartet

By JAN JEZIORO

he Alexander String Quartet gave the transitions among the various instru- the last of its three concerts in the ments hindered the conversational tone. T Slee Beethoven Quartet Cycle at The Lento was beautifully played, with the University at Buffalo on Saturday the perfectly sculptured phrasing creating evening. a sense of enveloping solemnity. The The members of the Alexander Quartet Alexander demonstrated a remarkable — first violinist Ge-Fang Yang, second ability to sustain a long, slow line, both violinist Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul here and in Thursday’s performance of the Yarbrough and cellist Sandy Wilson — Op. 132. presented an evening of performances that The final movement, with its famous fully justified the group’s national reputa- questioning phrase “Must it be?” was tion. played with the necessary sense of

inevitability that Beethoven’s ringing, af- The Alexander String firmative answer, both to the question, Quartet rolled over and to the contradictions of the human Beethoven, rounding out a condition, “It must be!” demands. The program notes correctly identified the three-day run of the Slee motto’s origin as being in a joke about an Beethoven Quartet Cycle in unpaid bill. However, the profound Slee Hall on Sunday. meaning that Beethoven later gave to the exchange, in a letter to a friend, tends to The Alexander nicely sustained the justify the traditional interpretation. necessary dramatic tension in the throb- The opening Allegro of the Op. 59, No. bing, dark-toned opening movement, of 2, was played with a flowing, singing the Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4, quality that neatly captured the shifting playing with a warm vibrancy. A finely rhythms. The players worked their slow judged pace contributed a contrasting movement magic again in the Adagio, sense of restraint in the polyphonic generating great warmth of feeling, along Scherzo, while the highlight of the with genuine intensity. A firmly vigorous Menuetto was the eloquently played approach to the quirky theme of the dialogue between viola and cello in the Allegretto built excitement, but the trio section. Both violinists sparkled in treatment of the Russian song in the the final rondo, which ended with a middle section felt somewhat rushed. furiously paced flourish. With his brilliant tone, the first violinist The opening movement of Beethoven’s led the way in a highly animated treatment last quartet, the Op. 135, had an agreeably of the final Presto, with the exciting finish tentative start, but a certain hesitancy in bringing the audience to its feet.

Thursday, May 27, 1999

Audience chooses well for string quartet

By R.M. CAMPBELL Seattle is not the first town where the The Alexander’s overall approach is P-I MUSIC CRITIC quartet has polled its audience to arrive at cohesive, supple, articulate and its tone a program. Last month in Los Angeles, clear. There is impressive refinement of At first it seemed a gimmick to attract the audience chose almost the same quar- detail and balance among the four, al- attention: Alexander String Quartet’s re- tets as Seattle: B-flat Quartet (Op. 18, though first violinist Ge-Fang Yang has quest from its future Meany Hall audi- No. 6), E-flat Quartet (Op. 74) and C- the brightest tone. He also went off pitch ence to choose its program. sharp Minor Quartet (Op. 131). The dif- the most. The four seemed to have no However, the quartet set some imme- ference was in the middle period, where trouble in adjusting between delicious diate restrictions. The concert was all- Los Angeles opted for one of the Opus 59 exuberance and gravity. Beethoven and the choice of three works quartets. The B-flat Quartet (Op. 18, No. 6), had to come from his early, middle and Even if the Beethoven popularity vote subtitled “La Malinconia,” opened the late periods. The polling was done by by the Meany audience was a stunt, the concert in a bright, forward fashion. mail in advance of the concert, held program was vital and appealing. Melancholy was rarely heard in this Tuesday night. Most subscribers didn’t This is an excellent ensemble particu- cheerful piece: Even the Adagio, marked bother to respond, but nearly 140 did, and larly noted for its extraordinary sense of “La Malinconia,” seemed only an inter- they made choices that proved to make an ensemble. Rarely do quartets possess ruption in the good times. The E-flat eminently satisfying program. such unanimity in attack, timbre and mu- Quartet (Op. 74), subtitled the “Harp,” Founded in 1981, the quartet began its sicality. The ups and downs of every was also rather merry in the main, with a life winning competitions and made a phrase were carefully weighed and meas- handsome Adagio as the centerpiece. name for itself in the United States and ured, then delivered without any seeming As the representative of the late quar- Europe. Most quartets do not have all 16 loss of spontaneity. Whatever disagree- tets, the C-Sharp Minor (Op. 131) was Beethoven’s quartets in performance ments may exist among the four men are almost as much as one could expect. The readiness, but the Alexander had pre- ironed out in rehearsal, not performance. reading had eloquence, beauty, pathos, pared them this season for a complete It is not surprising to learn the quartet has even innocence, as Richard Wagner once cycle in New York and San Francisco, a link to the Tokyo String Quartet, an- remarked about the piece. where the quartet is based. other ensemble known for its precision.