Listen to On The Town
Thursday @ 8 am & 6 pm
Friday @ 8 am
Thursday @ 8 am & 6 pm
Friday @ 8 am
Richard Fleischman, viola
Claudio Jaffé, cello
by Steve Gladstone ( Miami Art Zine) on March 15, 2012
Take a passionate and consummate violinist who lives in Davie and another one who lives in Miami Beach, a dynamic cellist living in Boynton Beach and an accomplished professor who plays viola residing in Aventura and match them up with a New York producer now living in Delray and who knows how to shape an artistic union, and voila, you've got The Delray String Quartet. Cities must generally import their classical talent in order to hear top shelf musicians render the works of the masters in their local downtowns. We have a first rate home spun string quartet which puts together programs that delight and surprise in our own backyard.
The Delray String Quartet players give you a short history and snappy anecdotes to brief you on each piece. Now in their eighth season, playing venues from Delray to Coconut Grove and all ports in between, their program choices are smart and savvy, drawing you in with a standard repertoire and then surprising you with lesser known works, just as haunting, stirring and wonderful. Their Concert #4 was no exception.
Last Friday, in the acoustically pleasant St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale, the foursome launched their program with the iconic Samuel Barber Adagio (the second movement of his String Quartet, op 11) which we usually hear as Barber retooled it for string orchestra. Apparently, when the string quartet premiered in 1936, Barber noticed the enthusiastic reception the second movement received and immediately went home that night to start fashioning it for string orchestra. A recording of its first performance in 1938 under Toscanini's baton remains. The films Platoon and The Elephant Man, episodes of The Simpsons, South Park, and Seinfeld have all been underscored by this most recognizable 20th century composition.
Hearing it in its original form as a score for four voices, the DSQ brought its power fully forward, handling its compressed rhythm, sustained notes, and unusual time signatures with all required and essential precision. The opening chord was spot on and its steady assent, moving. Be it a "small stream that grows into a river" or an "uneasy…stepwise motion, like the hesitant climbing of stairs," the DSQ rendered the climaxes, the dynamics from pianissimo to fortissimo, and its final resolution with all the pathos and passion any four musicians could muster.
The next piece, Joseph Haydn's Quartet in C major, op 33.no 3 was every bit its nickname, "The Bird". In its first movement, we get the violins walking and pecking and strutting in the yard. The second movement has the viola and cello communing with the flock, soothing in mood. In the third, the two violins meet while the lower voices look on with quiet joy. Full of vitality in the fourth, we find one bird chasing something and then suddenly flying off and away. Haydn wrote 68 string quartets during the baroque and classical periods, and this one in the hands of the DSQ sounded every bit alive and fresh as if it was scored last week.
Relying on the group you come to hear, it is their responsibility to not only move, but surprise with their programming. The DSQ did just that with Edvard Grieg's "Last Spring". Grieg, a Norwegian composer and pianist best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, wrote many short pieces based on Norwegian folk tunes and dances. This "Last Spring" was one of those rare moments where composition, musician and hall blended sublimely and gave me an experience that impacted me for days afterward. Originally a song for voice and piano, evoking the end of winter, awakening the heart after a time of sorrow, the DSQ renders every bit of sweetness from the piece, the violins trading the romance with the viola and cello. If you have any sentimental passionate bone in your body, spend the all too brief four minutes with this piece and discover for yourself the beautifully unencumbered theme about 90 seconds into the piece which repeats at the end in one of the most satisfying melodies you've heard in quite some time. Would I had a bootleg of this DSQ performance!
Astor Piazzolla's Tango Ballet was another of those delightful surprises. Piazzolla, influenced by the worlds of Buenos Aires, Paris, and New York, stretched the boundaries of the tango throughout his long life and career. He combined the structure of sophisticated music with the passion of the tango, often generating loathing among the orthodox tangueros. His style, which we might define as the "aesthetics of a musical state of mind" is crafted wonderfully in his Tango Ballet.
With the first notes, we are driven into its appealing modern tune. The tempo changes and sophisticated kitschy flavors almost evoke a Charlie Chaplin meets Kurt Weill sort of sound. We have a violin heroine with the other three voices moving through the twists and turns of a deserted alley where life is going on in the apartments above. We then move out in the open with the sweet, desperate and hopeful voice of the violin amidst the other voices, one trying to dance, one trying to run, one taunting the rest. This piece has legs. The violin solos passed seamlessly between DSQ's Mei Mei Luo and Tomas Cotik, sometimes passing the melodies to cello and viola, with Mei Mei adeptly shouldering the final solo.
The last in DSQ's program was Fritz Kreisler's "Liebesleid" (Love's Sorrow). Kreisler's famously continuous vibrato earned him the observation that "while Jascha Heifetz was the most conspicuously perfect violinist of his day, Kreisler was the most beloved." This delightful, simple waltz was agreeable in an old world kind of way in the hands of the DSQ. The lead violin lilted its way through a series of reiterated phrases consistently charming all the way to its final lift.
DSQ's four extraordinary artists include Mei Mei Luo (founding member and first violin), Tomas Cotik (second violin), Richard Fleischman (viola), and Claudio Jaffé (cello). The Quartet was founded and is sponsored by Don Thompson, an original co-producer of the long running Off-Broadway hit, "The Fantastiks". The DSQ performs at regular south Florida venues for a five concert series from December through April each year. Catch the Trout (couldn't resist), Schubert's Quintet in A major, D. 667 "Trout" and the Mahler "Adagietto" from his Fifth Symphony during their final concert this season from April 22-29. www.delraystringquartet.com
What we listen to is as much the work of the composer as it is the musicians who deliver it to us. This south Florida jeweled foursome must be heard and deserves more ears.
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR
For information or reservations call 561.213.4138 or Email Tickets@DelrayStringQuartet.com.
TICKET PRICES
• The Colony Hotel and Cabaña Club, Delray Beach
$35 at the door / $150 for the 5 concerts
• All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale
$20 at the door / $80 for the 5 concerts
• St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Coconut Grove
$20 at the door / $80 for the 5 concerts
NOTE: For season tickets, unused single tickets will be exchangeable for a different venue.
Remit to:
Delray String Quartet
PMB 138-777 East Atlantic Avenue, Suite C-2, Delray Beach, FL 33483.
Arts at St Johns and St. John's on the Lake
4760 Pine Tree Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33140
All Saints Episcopal Church
333 Tarpon Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
The Colony Hotel & Cabaña Club
525 East Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
2750 McFarlane Road, Coconut Grove, FL 33133
Delray String Quartet
PMB 138 – 777 East Atlantic Avenue, Suite C-2
Delray Beach, FL 33483
561.213.4138