Plymouth
Church
April
16
A budding classical quartet with a taste for pop. |
It
was kids’ night out at this month’s Cleveland Chamber Music
Society concert, with a boisterous student contingent whooping it up
for the not much older Quatuor Ébène.
The French quartet may not have been the most impressive ensemble in
CCMS’s stellar lineup this season, but give them credit for
bringing the most innovative program: Mozart, Mendelssohn and Jazz.
Founded
in 1999, the quartet comes with solid classical credentials. They
trained at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt, studied with
the Ysaÿe Quartet in
Paris, racked up several awards and ventured beyond the French
repertoire with recordings of Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, Mendelssohn and
Bartók. Yet it’s their
crossover work that has drawn the most attention, and support. Guests
on their 2011 release Fiction,
covers of pop hits and film tracks, include Natalie Dessay, Fanny
Ardant and Stacey Kent.
In
performance the group has a dry, compact sound that favors the high
end. It can be thin at times, like young wine – a clean finish, but
not much body. Their playing is tight, though not always with the
organic quality that characterizes the best quartet work. And their
tempos have a disconcerting tendency to slow down or speed up, the
latter sometimes robbing the music of depth and emotional impact. In
short, a promising vintage that needs time to mature.
Mozart’s
String quartet in C
major (K465) showcased
the group’s fine technical skills, especially in the quick turns of
the third and fourth movements. Once past the famous “dissonant”
opening, which they handled with solemn delicacy, the foursome gave
the piece a lighthearted, even playful quality, with notable
expression in the second movement. Otherwise, the music never
developed much depth, zipping along a polished but thin surface.
The
group seemed more comfortable with Mendelssohn’s String
quartet No. 6 in F minor (Op.
80), opening
with a blaze of energy that highlighted the light and dark tones of
the first movement. There were some flashes of color and drama in the
second movement, but it was played too fast to sustain any dramatic
tension. The sound finally opened up in the final two movements,
played with a passionate intensity led by first violinist Pierre
Colombet.
The
program after intermission was an amalgam of jazz and pop hits that
blithely crossed decades and genres, with the only common denominator
being songs that the group likes. These ranged from Erroll Garner’s
“Misty” to the Beatles’ “Come Together,” spiced by
unpredictable selections from movies as disparate as “Pulp Fiction”
and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” All were played in
original arrangements, which were uniformly good; on paper, the group
has great musical flair. In performance, some of the songs work, and some don’t.
The
quartet did a fine job of capturing the sonorities of Miles Davis’
“All Blues,” but could manage only a wan version of Wayne
Shorter’s “Footprints.” And they would do better to avoid the
Beatles altogether. Percussive touches lit up Dick Dale’s
“Misirlou” (from “Pulp Fiction”), as well as a closing
Piazzolla tango. The group returned for an encore of “Someday My
Prince Will Come” that featured a cappella breaks with surprisingly
good four-part harmonies. The ensemble’s vocals, in fact, were
better than some of their instrumental work in the second half.
Is
it possible to play both classical and popular music very well?
Others have tried, with equally spotty results. One of the jazz
pieces Quatuor Ébène covered was Brad Mehldau’s “Unrequited,”
which brought to mind a fall 2010 tour Mehldau did with Anne Sofie
von Otter, the brilliant Swedish mezzo-soprano. Mehldau is a gifted
pianist, but when he soloed on two Brahms caprices, he sounded like
what he was – a jazz player not quite making a successful crossover
to classical. And von Otter’s classical approach and phrasing were
a poor fit with Joni Mitchell and the Beatles.
Still,
the experimentation offered a refreshing break from standard
classical fare. And to judge by the audience, Quatuor Ébène
attracts a younger generation of fans that most chamber ensembles can
only wish for.
For
more on Quatuor Ébène:
http://www.quatuorebene.com/
For
more on the Brad Mehldau/Anne Sophie van Otter tour:
http://pragueculture.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html
Frank I'm so jealous! I discovered Quator Ebene
ReplyDeletein a concert at the National Music Museum in Prague about three years ago; tried to hear them
in Philadelphia last February but they all had
to cancel because of the 'flu. Thanks for your
review.
Elizabeth