Recently we heard a performance by a world-renowned string quartet on tour, which was playing the same program virtually every other night. This resulted in a super refined, note perfect performance, but also one that was missing a certain amount of spontaneity and vitality. Without the passion of the moment — four musicians responding to the score as it stimulated and drove them during the performance — the audience was curiously unmoved.
Such an over refined performance was not the order of the day yesterday afternoon as the Hidden Valley String Quartet played an intimate concert for a small audience at Hidden Valley Seminars in Carmel Valley. The four players, violinists Roy Malan and Jenny Bifano, violist Darcy Rindt and cellist Vanessa Ruotolo, generated plenty of spontaneity and passion, and if the ensemble was not totally note perfect, the musical values far outweighed the shortcomings.
The program began with a performance of Schubert’s Quartettsatz, and its mysterious opening phrase gave me goose bumps. It was thrilling! This extraordinary work stirs up many feelings of agitated Sturm und Drang, and the players on this occasion succeeded admirably in communicating these feelings to the audience.
The second work on the program, composed in 1919, was Quatour, by Germaine Tailleferre, a concise ten-minute work that turned out to be effectively written for string quartet. Similar in style to the string writing of Ravel, the piece was very compact and never wasted a moment — every note progressed logically and inevitably. The muted string sound of the beginning of the second movement was especially moving, and the final movement (the longest of the three) was full of Angst (or whatever the French equivalent is) and made a powerful effect. This work gave the four musicians ample opportunities to demonstrate what lovely sounds they could produce and how effectively they can exploit them for musical purposes.
The concert ended with the Mendelssohn String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13. This was clearly the most challenging work on the program, and it was also the work in which the passion and vitality of the performers struggled with the demands of the score and almost succeeded in delivering a convincing performance.
Hidden Valley Seminars has given us many vital performances over the years, and it can be proud of having nurtured this fine group of accomplished musicians.
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