Castalian Quartet Makes Impressive SF Debut

Last night in Herbst Theatre San Francisco Performances presented the second of the six programs in the 2021–2022 Shenson Chamber Series. The Castalian Quartet of violinists Sini Simonen and Daniel Roberts, violist Ruth Gibson, and cellist Christopher Graves had been scheduled to make its debut in the spring of 2020. Now that lockdown conditions due to COVID-19 have been eased, they have planned a tour of debut performances that will include Seattle, New York, Atlanta, and Vancouver, as well as San Francisco.

The ensemble was founded about a decade ago and is based in the United Kingdom. However, their first violin is Finnish and an enthusiastic advocate of the music of Jean Sibelius. As a result, the second half of the program was devoted to that composer’s most mature string quartet, his Opus 56 in D minor, given the title “Voces intimae” (intimate voices). Unless I am mistaken, I have encountered this music in performance (rather than on recording) only once, when it was performed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in April of 2011.

As the program note by Eric Bromberger observed, the quartet was composed between 1908 and 1909. In the context of more familiar Sibelius compositions, it is situated between the third (Opus 52 in C major) and fourth (Opus 63 in A minor) symphonies. It is not difficult to recognize some of the composer’s more familiar tropes, but the quartet’s “voice” is distinctively different from that of its “symphonic neighbors.” On the other hand, those familiar with the broader scope of the composer’s works are likely to find the rhetoric of the quartet familiar. The Castalian gave the music a convincing account, which, for this pair of ears, was a welcome reminder that Sibelius did not limit himself to writing orchestral music.

The intermission was preceded by the first quartet composed by György Ligeti. This was also given a title, “Métamorphoses nocturnes.” The music was composed between 1953 and 1954. Like the “Concert românesc” (Romanian concerto), which was performed by the San Francisco Symphony at the beginning of this month, this is another example of music composed “before Ligeti started sounding like Ligeti.” Indeed, if  “Concert românesc” reminds one of George Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody” compositions, “Métamorphoses nocturnes” could almost be taken for Béla Bartók’s seventh string quartet. Nevertheless, the music definitely has its own unique voice, particularly through the episodic rhetoric of its single movement.

The only disappointment last night came at the very beginning with Felix Mendelssohn’s final string quartet, his Opus 80 in F minor. Given how close this piece was composed to the composer’s death, one can easily describe the music as emotionally intense. While the Castalian players clearly appreciated that intensity, their interpretation tended to be a bit too much on the scrappy side. Mind you, it would probably be fair to say that Mendelssohn was more attentive to rhetoric than to sophisticated structural foundations, recalling the epithet of out-Heroding Herod.