Thalea String Quartet members Kumiko Sakamoto, Luis Bellorin, Christopher Whitley, and Titilayo Ayangade (from the University of Maryland announcement of the program being discussed)
Somewhat to my embarrassment, I realized this afternoon that I had not written about the Thalea String Quartet since November of 2018, when I could still call it a “local ensemble” about to make its debut in the Morrison Artists Series concerts presented by the College of Liberal and Creative Arts at San Francisco State University (SFSU). However, it appears that the group, consisting of violinists Christopher Whitley and Kumiko Sakamoto, violist Luis Bellorin, and cellist Titilayo Ayangade, is visiting the University of Maryland School of Music; and this afternoon they live-streamed a Fellowship Ensemble Recital presented at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The title of their program was Traditions, consisting of three compositions, each of which (according to the program summary) “explores unique non-Western classical traditions through the lens of the string quartet.”
The program was framed by two significantly different compositions spanning roughly two centuries. It began with Joseph Haydn’s Hoboken III/34 quartet in D major, the fourth of the six “Sun” quartets published as his Opus 20. This was complemented by concluding with Florence Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint. The titles of the songs were “Calvary,” “Clementine,” “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes,” “Shortnin’ Bread,” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” each of which finds its own departure from “classical traditions.” The “departure” in Hoboken III/34, on the other hand, involves drawing upon gypsy sources for the Menuet (third) movement.
Most readers know that, whether or not it is strictly true, Haydn is credited with “inventing” the string quartet. His earliest efforts were composed in 1762 and were relatively conventional. However, by 1772, the year in which the Opus 20 quartets were published, it was clear that Haydn was pushing boundaries and challenging the expectations of those both playing and listening to his quartets. While the gypsy rhetoric of the third movement is striking, each of the four movements has its own repertoire of rhetorical eccentricities. As one listens to how the instruments exchange thematic material, one consistently encounters off-kilter gestures, not to mention the occasional rude intrusion. The more one gets to know Hoboken III/34, the harder it becomes to keep a straight face while listening to it.
On the other hand I would guess that Price was not as interested in such prankishness. Rather, her collection amounts to taking five tunes that would have been familiar to most (all?) of her listeners and delivering them in a totally unexpected style. The counterpoint cited in her title is thickly textured, while her harmonies lead the tonal center on a winding path that pretty much loses all account of a “home key.” My guess is that, had the Fates endowed Haydn with an opportunity to examine Price’s score, he would have been wide-eyed with amazement and amused by the composer’s adventurous departures from convention.
However, the surprises served up by both Haydn and Price were modest compared to the music played between their respective compositions. “Sivunittinni” was one of the songs performed by the Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq. While Inuit throat singing involves ingenious exchanges normally between two women, Tagaq developed her own approach to solo performance. The otherworldliness of both the sonorities and the frameworks in which those sonorities unfold were arranged by Jacob Garchik for the Kronos Quartet, and Thalea performed that arrangement as the “middle selection” of their program. While the composition was relatively brief, it had the impact of a bolt of lightning on the attentive listener. Thalea’s account was downright visceral, yielding sonorities that were fascinatingly other-worldly.
Overall, Thalea’s performance could not have been more engaging, leaving at least this listener to wonder if there will be an opportunity to experience it in a concert setting.
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