By Lyn Bronson
Last night at All Saints Episcopal Church in Carmel we heard the Bennewitz String Quartet in a concert presented by the Mozart Society Series of the Carmel Music Society. Winner of the 2008 Borciani Quartet Competition, the four players in the Quartet, violinists Jiri Nemecek & Stepan Jezek, violist Jiri Pinkas, and cellist Stepan Dolezal, may have looked as youthful as teenagers, but the sounds that blended and soared from their instruments instantly identified them as masters of their craft.
The initial surprise of the evening was the first work on the program, Mozart’s Quartet in G Major, K. 156, a work written when he was only sixteen, but already a compelling piece that hinted of great masterpieces to follow. The charming first movement said a lot in its brief three-minute duration, and the flashes of Sturm und Drang in the development section were tantalizing in their brevity. After a lovely Adagio in a minor key, the last movement, Tempo di Menuetto, once again charmed us with its lively wit and forays into minor keys in its development section.
