Sorry, WQXR did not provide names of the Kila Quartet performers and my quick online search does not match what I saw onstage. That said, the quartet comported themselves very well—often, onstage bows are awkward; these were not.
Where do the years go? 2020.
String Quartet No. 19 in C Major (“Dissonance”) K. 465 – W. A. Mozart
String Quartet No. 3 – Bela Bartok
Oddly, when the quartet set up for the Mozart, they were not in ‘usual’ formation. From the house (left to right) we had violin, violin, viola, cello. More on that later.
The ‘Dissonance’ was a bit of a misnomer. Yes, the beginning of the piece had slow, rising and falling lines, creating dissonance (but in an enjoyable way). Then it turned into a regular, bubbly Mozart string quartet. The first movement, after the strange opening, was bubbly and very lengthy, leading to a quiet ending. The second movement was slow and slightly stately, though not somber. It picked up in energy, just barely. The third seemed to be a scherzo (which means joke). It was perky, with interruptions of louder and fuller phrases. The final movement was also fairly brisk and had interruptions that seemed a little more serious.
When setting up for the one-movement Bartok piece, the first and second violinists switched places. This is fairly common in quartets. In this case, though, the violist and cellist also switched places, giving a more standard quartet placement on stage. Why? I do not know.
As announced from the stage, this is/was the shortest of the six string quartets Bartok wrote. Interestingly, all four players re-tuned—I’m thinking maybe Bartok had specific tuning in mind? This is merely speculation on my part.
The piece was mysterious, with modern sounds, and dissonance (for real, this time).
Overall, I appreciate the difficulty and different techniques. I can’t say, however, that I really enjoyed it. I’m learning a lot here.
ConcertMeister
No comments:
Post a Comment