harrington

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

Reviews The Harrington String Quartet by David Katz The Harrington String Quartet, in residence at West Texas A&M University, delivered a very fine concert February 14^th at Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Many groups look at a New York recital as an opportunity to display virtuosity; the Harrington String Quartet came to make music. Celebrating their 22^nd season, the Quartet presented an interesting and varied program which included a New York premiere.

The Quartet (Annie Chalex, violin; Keith Redpath, violin; Joanna Mendoza, viola; and Emanuel Lopez, cello) displayed an ability to handle styles ranging from the classical to the Romantic to the modern. Opening with Langsamer Satz, by Anton Webern, they made this slow piece sound fresh and interesting. Beethoven's String Quartet in E flat major allowed the Quartet to get out of low gear and show their technical proficiency, which they have in quantity. Their agility on the fingerboard never trumped their sense of the musical flow and dynamics each movement demanded.

Visions in Funk, a new piece by Daniel McCarthy and commissioned by the Quartet, received its New York premiere at this concert. Initially reminiscent of Stravinsky, with jagged rhythms and blocks of sound predominating, this composition gave equal prominence to each of the instruments. Passages of pizzicato cello and viola combined with bowed violins provided rhythmic and melodic complexity; the echoing passages of plucked violins with bowed cello and viola were less successful, perhaps because the first violin seemed to be having difficulty producing a clear pizzicato sound. Unfortunately, much of the latter part of this composition sounded like the kind of thing a Hollywood composer would write for the fictional biography of a struggling misunderstood composer creating unappreciated Great Music. Nevertheless, the piece was quite worth hearing, and the Quartet is to be congratulated for bringing it to our attention.

The final offering was Concert in D major for violin, string quartet and piano, by Ernest Chausson, a French composer who died in 1899 at the young age of 44. The Quartet was joined by William Preucil, violin, and Arthur Rowe, piano. According to the program notes, Chausson suffered from a life-long feeling of insecurity and disbelief in his own abilities. On the evidence of this Concert, which opens with what sounds like an extended three-note dirge, his insecurity had some foundation in fact. Only the last movement, marked 'tres anime', had real melodic and rhythmical interest. The composer was not helped by early problems in the group's dynamics, with the piano nearly drowning out the violin soloist. Fortunately, these problems were corrected as the performance went on.

All of the members of the Quartet performed well, but the violist, Joanna Mendoza, deserves special mention. Her lush, sonorous and assertive tone and dynamic range provided the Quartet sound with a special richness, while not disturbing the ensemble blending by which string quartets live or die. The Harrington String Quartet gave us an adventurous program and real musicianship. We look forward to their return.