This will be a combination post of two different events. On Saturday, April 28, I attended a portion (actually two sessions of four) of the Juilliard String Quartet Survey presentation of their Beethoven String Quartet Marathon, while Sunday found me at a Carnegie Neighborhood Concert presentation of the
JACK Quartet. Since most (or all) of the names will be unknown to most (or all) of my readers, I won’t be naming all twenty-four string players, nor will I be outlining every movement of the five Beethoven quartets I heard.
String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18 No. 2 (1798–1801)
S.Q. No. 3 in D major, Op. 18 No. 3 (1798–1801)
S.Q. No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 “Harp” (1809)
S.Q. No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1 (1808)
S.Q. No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826)
As announced from the stage, the Juilliard String Quartet Survey is a required course for all string players at Juilliard in their first year. The students are grouped together into foursomes by faculty members who then serve as mentors to walk the students through their assigned piece. The student quartets also have assigned practice times, which can serve as an anchor in their naturally busy first-year introduction to the school. All five of the student quartets played well. There were varying levels of success in terms of stage comportment, however.
When the first quartet finished, there was no clear indication of who was leading the group’s bows and who was deciding whether or not to take a second bow and when the group should exit the stage. These are things that come with experience, and I’m sure these students will keep gaining that experience. Understandably, there were audience members there in support of specific players. And the audience, in general, seemed to want the players to come back out for another bow, which is fairly usual, but it felt a little forced; indeed, they did not return.
That slightly awkward feeling continued when the second group came out on stage but things settled down eventually. As explained by the cellist, the numbering of Opuses and the pieces within them is sometimes confusing. As we can see from the list above, the first two quartets I heard were both from Opus 18. No. 2 followed by No. 3. But here’s one catch—No. 3 was the first of the three in Opus 18, Book 1 to be composed. Confused, yet? Don’t be. Just go with the flow. My good friend Wikipedia explains further that Opus 18 was published in 1801 in two books of three quartets each and they were composed in the following sequence: 3, 1, 2, 5, 4, 6. You can see why it’s sometimes confusing.
One of the violinists from the third student quartet explained that the “Harp” moniker is not one that was given by Beethoven. This is true of most ‘named’ pieces—the name is usually tacked on later. In this case, the string players end up playing pizzicato (plucking the strings rather than bowing them) at the same time in pairs, which is slightly like a harp. I didn’t quite see it that way, but the publisher’s nickname has stuck.
While the fourth group of students made a better entrance than some of the others, the microphone handling by the violist was a bit awkward. Also he ended up giving a little too much of an explanation of the piece for my taste. Some info is helpful, but I’d like to come to some conclusions on my own, as well. As I said, they’ll grow into this.
Of note about the fifth quartet that I heard is that, as explained from the stage, it was written in seven movements (definitely not the norm) to be played directly after one another. I seemed to experience slight breaks, though not actual breaks as in most quartets. And I have to share the title of the middle movement only because it tickled me so much. That fourth movement is: Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile – Piu mosso – Andante moderato e lusinghiero – Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio, ma non troppo e semplice – Allegretto. And no, I could not discern them all during the playing. And for the record, I had to look up lusinghiero which means ‘in a soft tender manner’.
Hmm, maybe I’ll save JACK for another post. These five Beethoven quartets were enough of a marathon for me (and there were four more that were played that Saturday), and I’m guessing that these five were enough for you, too. Am I right?
ConcertMeister
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