Above: Franz Schubert
Tuesday April 16, 2013 - This evening the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presented the Orion String Quartet - who are celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary - performing two quartets by Franz Schubert and a quintet by the contemporary Australian composer Brett Dean.
In a program note, the Orion players spoke of how this particular juxtaposition of works came to be: having chosen Death and the Maiden, they looked for other works with similar themes and decided on the Rosamunde and on Mr. Dean's Epitaphs, which the Quartet had premiered in 2010.
Franz Schubert was already seriously ill when he composed the two quartets we heard tonight. Written in 1824 when Schubert was 28, they mark part of a hyper-prolific phase of composing - as if the young composer was in a race against Death, which would eventually claim him in 1828. As with Mozart and Bellini, we are left to ponder what masterworks might have been created had these composers lived out a fuller span of time.
In this week when the tragedy in Boston has joined the ever-growing list of senselessly violent events in the world, tonight's programme was transformed into a benediction. As composers, musicians and listeners, we have learned over the decades that music is the great solace of life. And so this evening as the Orion players intoned the opening three-note descending motif of the Rosamunde - which eerily pre-echoes the opening moments of Verdi's MESSA DA REQUIEM - the music took on an urgently personal and timely aspect.
Throughout the evening, the remarkable playing of the Orion was a blessed assurance in every way. Depth of artistry and glowing musicality illuminated every note and phrase of the two Schubert works. Their sound is paradoxically dense and transparent, with special clarity of rhythmic nuance and shining tone throughout the registers. Devoid of theatricality, the Orion players reach the heart of the music and in doing so move the listener with their poignantly expressive playing. This was a musical and spiritual experience to cherish, and an evocation of light and hope in a darkening world.
In the evening's middle work, composer and violist Brett Dean joined the quartet for his Epitaphs, five finely-wrought meditations on the passings of friends and colleagues. This music has a captivating other-worldly shimmer: a buzzy quality that tantalizes the ear. Each of the five movements has a unique tone, reflecting on the composer's recollections of each friend's personal characteristics. The final movement, dedicated to the conductor Richard Hickox, wove a truly ravishing sonic tapestry of ecstacy and foreboding; an animated passage then gave way to the misterioso ending as the wings of death seemed to flutter about us.
The players of the Orion String Quartet are: Daniel and Todd Phillips, alternating violins; Steven Tenenbom, viola; and Timothy Eddy, cello.