Rosamunde String Quartet's local debut embraces cellist's hometown visit
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| The well-traveled Rosamunde String Quartet |
It was more than a highly anticipated continuation of the two organizations' annual collaborative concert. It was also a homecoming for Indianapolis native Nathan Vickery, the Rosamunde's cellist and a member of the New York Philharmonic. (Brother Peter is associate concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.)
String quartets are a regular feature with Ensemble Music, whose concerts date from 1945. IVCI laureates have been brought back under the collaborative aegis of recent years: The connection this time is through the competition-jury participation in 2022 of violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Bendix-Balgley was especially impressive in the deep pathos and occasionally ferocious energy required of the first violin in Mendelssohn's Quartet in F minor, op. 60, which concluded the announced program in front of an ecstatic audience. Most of the Grand Hall's 560 seats were filled with reliably receptive listeners.
Notable for its overall dark mood, in contrast to the composer's reputation for youthful ebullience, Mendelssohn's last complete work requires a controlled passion from its explosive opening on, with its gentler moments well-integrated into the whole. The second movement is a shockingly bitter scherzo, duly electrifying in this performance.
The Adagio that follows drew forth a patient unanimity from the quartet, whose other members are violinist Shanshan Yao and violist Teng Li. The four players seemed to revel in the dark, blended harmonies. In the finale, the fervent implied protest by the composer against the premature death of his beloved sister was well-sustained, rising to a torrential coda guaranteed to confirm the audience enthusiasm that greeted all three pieces. Returning to acknowledge the ovation, the Rosamunde offered a calm movement from sister Fanny's E-flat major quartet. You could practically hear the collective "Awww!' responding to this programming choice.
That piece offered a further opportunity to appreciate the violist's full tone, warm but never overbearing. That had astonished me in a single phrase during the finale of George Walker's String Quartet No. 1 ("Lyric"), which preceded intermission. I don't often sit opposite the f-holes of the viola to get the most out of its resonance, so felt fortunate Tuesday night to be at the side in the front row taking in Li's excellence.
The work was placed in such a way that the Mendelssohnian depths were foreshadowed. The resilient piece by a major 20th-century African-American composer was a rare treat to hear. Its third movement displayed throbbing accompaniment figures supporting its heart-tugging melody. There were hymnlike episodes in the middle movement, which brought out the performers' sustained blend of tone and phrasing. The poignant aspect of the work in the first movement yielded to a contrapuntal ending, as if to say, "Let's wash our hands of any memory of hard times and show we have the resources we need to thrive."
Program-building of such insight was confirmed by the sunny Beethoven quartet that opened the concert. The third of the quartets in the op. 18 set of six is fascinating in its suggestions of the innovator to come from the Viennese master. The forceful accents characteristic of Beethoven's lines burst forth from the start. I admired the swelling and receding dynamic levels in the slow movement and the colors evident in the hushed ending. The third movement was effectively delineated in its unusual brevity.
Whether expansive or concise in the demands it meets, the Rosamunde (evidently named for the Schubert string quartet that rescued one of his failed opera attempts from oblivion) seems worth its peripatetic place on world concert stages, weaving its gigs among members' orchestra obligations.
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