Chamber Music Monterey Bay (CMMB) President, Amy Anderson greeted the audience at Sunset Center last night as a welcome to its new season. On stage was the Emerson String Quartet, a great favorite of CMMB and local audiences, which was returning to Sunset Center after several highly successful previous engagements.
We observed something new on stage last night — a portable one-foot high platform to elevate a seated cellist to the eye level of the remaining three standing players in a string quartet. This was the creation of Peter Thorp, a man who can design and build just about anything. He told us during intermission that the platform on which the cellist is seated has an optional resonating membrane (not used in last night’s performance) and a set of hidden wheels at the back of the platform so that when it is set upright on its rear edge, it can be easily rolled on and off stage by one person. The effect during a performance of this ingenious bit of stagecraft is that the cellist, seated like royalty on an elevated throne appears to be surrounded by adoring courtiers fiddling away in homage to him. I have absolutely no problem with this visual aspect of the performance, since the cello is my favorite string instrument and, in my opinion, its enthroned nobility is richly deserved and long overdue.
Now, back to the players of the Emerson Quartet, violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel, all of whom are superb players and capable of extraordinarily refined ensemble. We were not disappointed last night, for they treated us to some very artistic playing. Perhaps an odd choice for a beginning work on the evening’s program was Schubert’s Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 125, No. 1. Although an impressive work for one so young — it was composed when Schubert was only 16 — it was still not top drawer Schubert and its Adagio movement held little hint of the extraordinary outpouring of dramatic Lieder that was to come a few years later. Although it had its moments of charm, it was still a lightweight work that left us wanting something of more substance.
Such was the work that followed, Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major, Op. 117. This quartet uses just about every resource of which string instruments are capable, and its performance was a wild ride that developed an extraordinary cumulative effect by its conclusion. We heard brilliant playing with such boldness and authority that it was a highly stimulated and excited audience that mingled in the lobby during intermission.
The final work of the evening was Dvořák’s Quartet in C Major, Op. 61. Although we heard much sensitive and artistic playing, and the work does have its sublime moments, this quartet is also very long and at times outstays its welcome. In any case, after the extraordinary effect of the Shostakovich quartet, which was a hard act to follow, at times I found myself drifting into the arms of Morpheus.
After a warm ovation from the audience, the players gave us one encore in memory of the late Emile Norman, the Adagio from Samuel Barbers’ String Quartet. Although under-rehearsed in spots, it was nevertheless a very moving performance.
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