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appreciation chamber music

back in the saddle

Arnica Quartet - Photo: Martha Warrington

Playing anything after a long period of absence is difficult, but it’s my opinion that chamber music – especially the string quartet – is the most difficult to come back to and do well.  There are just so many variables among the four instruments, as well as the sheer breadth and difficulty of the repertoire, that lead to this conclusion.  It was on my mind several times during my performance with the Arnica Quartet up at OHSU Auditorium at noon today, as we played Beethoven’s Op. 95 string quartet “Serioso”, and Schumann’s Quintet for piano and strings, Op. 44 with pianist Susan Dewitt Smith.

The Beethoven presents several difficulties.  First of all, it’s by Beethoven, so he doesn’t do you any favors right off the bat.  His writing is always uncompromising from a technical standpoint, even from the early Op. 18 quartets.  Also, this particular quartet is written in such a spare and austere fashion, both in terms of its musical language and in its orchestration.  It is a particularly transparent orchestration, which basically means that each instrument is very exposed (even more than usual in a string quartet setting) and voicing must be handled carefully to make sure that the material is presented in a clearly understandable way.  Beethoven is equally sparing with his economy of materials in this quartet, too.  Harmonic transitions occur quickly, and with little preparation.  There is much more of a reliance on motivic development than on spinning melodies, which also contributes to the concentration of the materials.  So too, the mood is terse (hence ‘Serioso’, a nickname bestowed upon the quartet by Beethoven himself), often angry, and the most striking moment of the piece, for me, is in the Allegretto movement (the closest that comes to a ‘slow’ movement in the quartet), where he starts a plaintive fugue which builds in intensity until it fragments and breaks apart, leaving only the spooky downward scale of the cello topped by suspensions in the upper strings, played sotto voce.  It definitely looks forward to some incredible moments in the late quartets, and yet it all happens in the space of about 30 seconds.  All of this aside, I think we did pull off a good performance of the quartet, which definitely felt good – even tough it was a tough horse to climb back on after a long absence.  And the moment was doubly sweet since it marked the official return of our cellist Heather Blackburn, who had been out all of last year with a playing-related injury.

Pianist Susan Dewitt Smith

The Schumann Quintet for piano and strings, Op. 44 is just a joy to rehearse and perform.  It is so well written for the forces that it really does go together quite easily, and having such a great pianist such as Susan to play it with certainly made it all the better.  Everyone gets their moment in the lime light with this piece, and the piano is involved in just about every moment of the piece.  I certainly hope that we get a chance to perform this piece again soon!

For any of you that haven’t been to the auditorium up at Oregon Health Sciences University for a concert, you’re missing one of the gems of performance spaces in Portland.  I wish that it was located downtown so that parking and accessibility would be much easier, but it’s entirely worth the fuss to get up Pill Hill.  It’s the perfect combination of lively and dry, with every voice being able to be heard with great clarity – a perfect chamber music setting.

7 replies on “back in the saddle”

I thought the performance today by the Arnica Quartet at the OHSU noon concert series was brilliant. It really sounded polished and like you had been rehearsing a lot. Some of the interplay of the instruments in the Beethoven was just riveting; and the varied dynamics, constantly changing mood and intensity, and virtuosic playing had me engaged throughout. (Your viola sounded full and warm throughout.)

Thanks for the fine performance. And thank to OHSU for sponsoring this series of free concerts. You are right: this one of the best places around to hear chamber music.

Thanks for the program of two interesting works and the good performance; while not as reverent as Mr. Pritchard, I enjoyed being there to hear it.

Of the Middle quartets of Beethoven, I like the Razumovsky three that dominate the set, but the Serioso would probably be my favorite; it really stands out of the rest, perhaps as an apt transition to the Late set. It was good to be able to hear it live again played nicely. I had never heard the Schumann quintet before; and it was delightful, with nothing boring in it.

I didn’t quite get your last paragraph. Searching for concerts/auditorium on the OHSU events page, this is coming out as the only one through next year. (Also I go to a lot of chamber music events and hadn’t come across anything at this venue before.) Maybe you were trying to encourage other musicians to hold their concerts there or something.

Arthur – you’re correct, the OHSU Auditorium is currently only offering concerts under their auspices at this point, no one else is offering concerts there as far as I know.

Played the Serioso quartet this past semester at school. Love the first movement! It’s such a short quartet also. You also forgot to mention that it us the viola who starts the moldy in th fugue!!

great to learn that y’all are “back in the saddle.”

the gallop of a ride known as “grosse fuge” is gonna be a full-frontal flight – sans parachutes!

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