Word: guarneri
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There was no shuffling of programs. No peeking at watches. No glancing at the hairdo of the woman across the aisle. When the Guarneri String Quartet came to Boston last Friday, they held an entire audience in captivating. The effect was a feeling of anticipation that made it seem as though you were not in Jordan Hall, but in a Sony Theatre. As patrons sat with their necks outstretched and their shoulders leaning forwards, they resembled an audience that might have been anticipating Bruce Willis to defuse a bomb or Keanu Reeves to board a bus--not four smallish string...
...Guarneri String Quartet has been hailed as "one of the world's most elegant chamber ensembles." The quartet, founded in 1964, has the distinction of being the world's oldest string quartet to feature the same original players. And, as you might imagine, 34 years of playing together reverberates in the Quartet's sound...
...between the pauses and rests, between the crescendos and dimenuendos, the players' personality seeps through. And while there is an intrinsic level of formality in the performance of any string quartet (underscored by the tuxedos of the musicians and the gilded architecture of the halls they play in), the Guarneri String Quartet employs no formality that stifles the honesty and candidness of their personality. As each musician performed with ease and comfort, the second violinist, John Dalley even allowed himself to beam with a smile in some of the quartet's more magical moments...
...created a mood that the quartet conveyed as sad, thoughtful and full of wonder. While the fourth movement, Presto e scherzando presented a direct contrast--with its expulsions of happiness in the form of harmonic and melodic unpredictability--there was, nonetheless, room for moments of sensitive contemplation that the Guarneri String Quartet used in making the piece as cerebral as melodic. Their second piece, Bela Bartok's String Quartet No. 6, presented (as those familiar with Bartok can imagine) a very different effect. Bartok regarded the string quartet as "a laboratory of advancing musical ideas." In this spirit of experimentation...
...Guarneri String Quartet has long enchanted its patrons. The Dallas Morning News recently described them as being "really quite perfect." And although the creation of music--of an art based upon interpretation and perception--can arguably never reach a state of perfection, one thing for certain is that last Friday in Jordan Hall, the Guarneri String Quartet came about as close as any string quartet...