Quartet plays Beethoven
as good as it could be played
The third in this season’s series of Impromptu Concerts took place at San Carlos last Sunday, in an all-Beethoven program. The group was the Alexander Quartet, here on a return engagement: They played an Impromptu concert 13 years ago.
The group — violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarborough, and cellist Sandy Wilson — played Beethoven’s String Quartets nos. 6, 11, and 9. They played them about as well as they could be played.
All four musicians seemed to be of equal accomplishment. Mr. Grafilo’s lead violin’s sound was smaller and more intense than those of the other strings, with a sweetness to his playing which was especially appropriate to the many passages influenced by Mozart. The playing of Mr. Lifsitz and Mr. Yarborough fit the blend superbly; it would be hard to comment further on that, since there were so few exposed passages for their instruments.
There were a couple of notable exceptions. In the second movement of the 6th Quartet, Mr. Lifsitz showed a broad generous sound when he echoed precisely the melody from the first violin; in the second movement of the 9th, Mr. Yarborough’s viola did the same — his accuracy extended even to the grace notes. Throughout the concert, Mr. Wilson’s cello was in support, usually fairly softly, but with a sense of considerable power held mostly in reserve. This was especially evident in the instrument’s extended pizzicato passages, which were rhythmically authoritative while never being obtrusive.
Right from the beginning, one was struck by how well these people played together, a quality which produced, as Mr. Lipsitz mentioned in his introductory remarks, “a sonority which was greater than the sum of its parts.” During the entire concert, nobody ever overplayed. When the line was being passed back and forth, each instrument came in at precisely the same dynamic level as the previous one. In the ensemble passages the harmonic blend was just about perfect. This is especially important in Beethoven’s music, since his voicings — which note of a given chord to assign to which instrument in which register — were always very carefully and skillfully chosen.
As for their attacks, there was one passage, in the 6th Quartet Scherzo, where the several instruments played syncopated figures an eighth note apart from one another. From a less precise group, that could sound merely messy, as if someone was coming in late — from them, it had a quality of exceptional elegance. Even in triumphant endings, playing fast and loudly, they never lost that precision: They ended the concert with the last movement of the 9th Quartet, “allegro molto,” at top speed — “molto” indeed — without a lapse.
This concert was about as good as chamber music can be. The group fully deserved the long standing ovation, complete with cheers, at the end. Many years ago, Yehudi Menuhin commented about one of this group’s performances: “It was unbelievably good Beethoven — in conception, musicality, balance of voices, respect for the score, humor, pathos, emotional projection. There was absolutely nothing that was missing.” The same was true on Sunday.
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