By Lyn Bronson
No stranger to Peninsula audiences, the Alexander String Quartet returned to Carmel for a triumphant concert last night. We heard the four players of this fine quartet at the top of their form, and we heard them in the magnificent acoustics of All Saints Church in Carmel. The event marked the first concert in the Mozart Series presented by the Carmel Music Society, and there was a significant added attraction as famed clarinetist Eli Eban joined the quartet to perform the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets.
The opening work on the program was a performance of the early Mozart Quartet in F Major, K. 168. Listening to the ensemble repartee between violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarbrough and cellist Sandy Wilson, right from the first notes of the Allegro we heard precision, elegance, refinement, and charm— that’s a winning combination and the Alexander String Quartet has it in spades. After a brief Andante, the Menuetto was a surprising movement, with its agitated phrases boldly and rudely interrupting each other, and the final fugue was a knockout.
