Tokyo String Quartet Fails to Deliver
For The Love of Music
Wednesday, July 26, Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.
Tokyo String Quartet: Mikhail Kopelman, violin, Kikuei Ikeda, violin,
Kazuhide Isomura, viola,
Clive Greensmith, violoncello.
By Peter Amsel
In what was one of the most anticipated performances of the Ottawa Chamber
Music Festival the world renowned Tokyo String Quartet appeared in a concert
at Christ Church Cathedral with a program that, on the surface, seemed
interesting for its novelty, but lacked the depth that one would expect from
such a world class ensemble. The performance was also marred by the
unforgiving acoustics of the Cathedral, and, perhaps by the heat.
While it has become somewhat of a running joke among performers and audience
members that the heat is an integral part of the Ottawa Chamber Music
Festival, it really can have an adverse effect on a performance, especially
when it comes to the delicate string instruments such as the Stradivari
instruments that the Tokyo String Quartet performs on. The acoustics in the
churches, for the most part, are very favourable to chamber music, but
Christ Church Cathedral is a cavernous building designed for choral music
and the intricacies of string playing gets muddled, not enhanced.
Unfortunately, that was not where the problems ended. The first work on the
program was by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). The TSQ chose his Quartet
Pieces, Opus 81, which Mendelssohn composed at three different times. The
first two movements were composed in 1847, the third in 1843 and the fourth
movement, the Fugue, in 1827. The best playing came in the final movement,
with especially fine contributions coming from violist Kazuhide Isomura. His
tone was the most remarkable throughout the concert and his playing never
wavered. Playing on the instrument that inspired Berlioz to compose Harold
in Italy, however, certainly cannot help but inspire a performer to play
their best.
The second work on the program was by Franz Schubert (1797-1828). Not the D.
112 or 173, or the String Quartet in d minor 'Der Tod und das Mädchen', D.
810. Instead they performed the Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703, which was
composed in December of 1820. It is an incomplete work that Schubert had
started a second movement for, but never went back to, which summarizes the
entire program of this concert: it seemed to be comprised of fragments.
After the first work by Mendelssohn there was not a single substantive work
from the string quartet repertoire. The performance of the Quartettsatz was
marred by some intonation problems coming from the first violin of Mikhail
Kopelman, and the ensemble did not seem to have the conviction that they
possessed when playing other works.
The first work of the second-half of the concert was the short Adagio and
Fugue in C minor, K. 546, by Mozart (1756-1791). This brief piece was
composed on June 26, 1788, and has a very dramatic opening which allowed the
fine sound of violoncellist, Clive Greensmith, and violist Kazuhide Isomura
to be featured to great effect. Unfortunately, the playing in the fugue lost
its cohesion and the direction of the work seemed somewhat aimless.
The highlight of the performance came in the guise of Anton Webern's
Langsamer Satz, which was composed in 1905 and not discovered until after
his death. Webern (1883-1945) who is mostly known for his work as a part of
the Second Viennese School never fails to surprise when a composition turns
up that is full of lush romantic melodies. This is the work that the Tokyo
String Quartet performed as an encore last year at the OCMF, and it was
effective here again. The slow harmonic rhythm of the music worked to their
benefit in the Cathedral for a change, and the warmth of their sound was
able to be fully appreciated. It was the finest playing of the evening by
far.
The final work of this concert was the Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, Opus
133, by Beethoven (1770-1827). Now, this is obviously not something to be
considered a light piece by any stretch of the imagination, but Beethoven
composed it to be the final movement of a complete string quartet, the Opus
130. It was only at the urging of people who could not handle the forward
thinking of Beethoven that he composed an alternative ending to the quartet
and why the Grosse Fuge was published under a separate opus number.
Contextually it needs to be heard after the preceding String Quartet in
B-flat major, Opus 130, as Beethoven prepares the listener for what is the
ultimate in string quartet writing. Coming at the end of a mish-mash recital
the Grosse Fuge is not coherent and hardly an effective way to end a
concert.
The performance was dreadful. At times the sound was ragged, unfocused and
almost amateurish. There were false notes sounding, harmonics ringing and
bow-hits against the bodies of the instruments. It was enormously
disappointing. However, the Tokyo String Quartet has a faithful following
who were well represented in the audience and they were treated to an encore
from the third movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No 1 in C
major, Opus 49. Ironically, this was some of the best playing of the night,
right there with the Webern.
Peter Amsel is an Ottawa based
composer and writer.
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Archer070
If I hear an ensemble from Tokyo, I want Noh masks, plum wine, and pentatonic
tunes with flatted supertonics.