Last night in Herbst Theatre, this season’s Chamber Series, presented by San Francisco Performances, concluded with the return of the Ébène Quartet. Membership has changed since the ensemble last visited San Francisco with the arrival of a new cellist, Yuya Okamoto. Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure are still the violinists; but the violist was Hélène Clément, substituting for Marie Chilemme for the current Spring United States tour. The program was framed by two of the “Three Bs,” both represented by a “second quartet,” with Claude Debussy’s only string quartet as the “middle” selection.
I must confess to a particular fondness for that quartet. For the better part of my youth, my exposure to his music was limited to orchestral works (due in no small part to a bias on the part of my parents). I would later get to know several of his piano compositions; but my “first encounter” with the quartet came relatively late. As a result, it struck me like a bolt of lightning.
Lightning struck again last night. Even with a substitution in membership, the ensemble could not have been more attuned to the rhetorical diversity mined from Debussy’s quartet. Mind you, I have had no shortage of opportunities to listen to this music on recording (such as last year’s Sony Masterworks anthology of the Guarneri Quartet); but the music is so nuanced that one can only really appreciate the details in a recital setting. It would be unfair to say that the Debussy selection rose above the quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, which flanked it on either side. Nevertheless, there is a uniqueness to Debussy’s rhetoric in his quartet that consistently seizes my attention, particularly when given a recital performance by an ensemble as skilled as Ébène.
Indeed, I found it interesting that Debussy was “approached” by the second in the first six Beethoven quartets to see publication, his Opus 18. The set is often called the “early quartets;” and there is very much a sense that Beethoven is looking back on Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while looking forward at the same time. Personally, I find the Opus 18 set to be consistently refreshing across all six of its quartets. Last night began with the second of those quartets in the key of G major, which suited the high spirits of the Ébène musicians accordingly.
The program concluded with the second of the two string quartets in Johannes Brahms’ Opus 51. Brahms composed only three string quartets, the two in Opus 51 followed by Opus 67. It was clearly not his favorite genre, but I have come to appreciate all three of the quartets over the years. Last night served as a reminder for me that I should be paying more attention to all three of them! (Those that attended the latest performance of chamber music by members of the San Francisco Symphony this past Sunday may know that the piano quartets receive more attention.) Indeed, it may well be that my last encounter with the complete set of those string quartets took place back when I was living in Connecticut and making frequent visits to listen to the Guarneri Quartet at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan!
Ébène prepared an encore that also involved seldom encountered music. This was the second of the three Divertimenti that Benjamin Britten composed in 1933 (revised in 1936). The selection was an engaging waltz, which turned out to be a wistful way in which to wish the audience a good night. Perhaps for their next visit the Ébène musicians will play all three of them!
No comments:
Post a Comment