Knowles passed away in May, at age 87, and was officially paid tribute at the Brooklyn Rider concert, a musical night which would have thrilled her. Much of the series\u2019 repertoire has leaned toward more deeply rooted and conventional programming, with exceptions. And Brooklyn Rider\u2019s contemporary music-spotlighting menu was one of the more delectable exceptions to date.<\/p>\n
Yes, Brooklyn is the quartet\u2019s birthplace and home base, formed 20 years ago, and taking its name from the German expressionist collective Die Blaue Reiter (its best-known artists including Kandinsky, August Macke, and Franz Marc). BR \u2014 violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Michael Nicolas \u2014 last played locally in 2017, at Campbell Hall, in one of a couple of concerts over the years pairing them with kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor. The group also landed at Music Academy of the West\u2019s Hahn Hall in 2013, on a typically balanced program of music by Mozart, B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k, and gifted in-house composer\/violinist Jacobsen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The quartet\u2019s reputation for embracing, and helping to nurture, the new has continued apace. The centerpiece of this Friday night concert was a set of ink-still-moist, newly commissioned works under the general and socially inclined umbrella title Citizenship Notes. From the stage, Cords spoke of the \u201cflattened hierarchy\u201d of Haydn\u2019s quartet music, and true to the very nature of the string quartet itself. He related that democratic ideal to the concept behind Citizenship Notes, engaging music which expresses ways to \u201cexplore questions of citizenship and democracy in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n
That idea was translated into particular musical terms through each composer\u2019s distinctly different means. Angelica Negron questions linguistic imperialism with Our Children Speak Spanish and English, combining ghostly tones and abstracted children\u2019s voices, with a suspended, questioning air. Jazz clarinetist and genre-crossing composer-thinker Don Byron\u2019s gamey String Quartet No. 3 variously and cleverly channels the influences of Carl (Looney Tunes musical genius) Stalling, Prokofiev, and Lalo Schifrin \u2014 why not?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most potently, Ted Hearne\u2019s We Are Working Tirelessly for a Ceasefire encapsulates Gazan genocidal horrors, but subtly, through disjointed phrasings and a mounting sense of urgency, with abrupt dynamic shifts and an implied evocation of life during wartime. After a dramatic violin climax, a low sludgy drone continues on, like the drone of dread and impending destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacobsen\u2019s creative handiwork, tied to the citizenship theme, was heard here through an inventive rethought arrangement of Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cThe Times They Are A-Changin,\u2019\u201d wrapping the familiar theme in fresh, new and mysterious terms. Think of it as an anthem recast as a deconstructed tone poem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lest anyone would think that this quartet\u2019s command leans only in the direction of contemporary ideas and new vistas, their polished and passionate readings of Haydn\u2019s Quartet in F Minor to open and a powerful gust of Beethoven\u2019s String Quartet in C Opus 59, No. 3 after intermission reminded us of the over-arching and trans-historical musical vision of the group.<\/p>\n
Ironically, or not, the two pillar composers in the string quartet repertoire were presented in a semi-role reversal situation, counter to the stereotypes of Haydn as genteel classical model and Beethoven the turbulent romantic. The Haydn in this case tilted towards a more somber demeanor, whereas Beethoven\u2019s opus teems with life-affirming gusto and a senses-dazzling, furious yet graceful finale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rider behaved accordingly, with fine attention to detailing and the innate spirit of the scores. That\u2019s the way they roll, whatever the music in front of them and us.<\/p>\n
Next up on the S.Y.V. series docket is a concert embodying a central linkage to the Music Academy of the West, on October 25. This concert features the Academy\u2019s vocal department co-head, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violist Richard O\u2019Neill (MAW faculty member and now part of the Tak\u00e1cs Quartet, which performed in this series just in January), and the considerable pianist Robert Cassidy himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something good\u2019s always cooking, serious music-wise, in this church, over the hill and not so far away. See syvconcerts.org<\/a> for more information and tickets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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