Bartok's 4th String Quartet and the Stradivari Quartet

The Stradivari Quartet visited Orlando (Winter Park) Florida on a lengthy US mid city tour this November 6th as a part of Rollins College's Visiting Artist Series. There was likely a number of folks in the audience that were drawn to the fact that all four instruments were made by the Italian master Stradivarius; a fact that was emphasized by Dr. Sinclair's introductory joking about the audience combined not having enough insurance to cover their value. As any musician knows, passionate music can be made on any real instrument; and having a great instrument has little to do with great music. But, having a great instrument can allow a great musician to reach new heights and depths.

I feel sorry for these fine musicians to have to carry the weight of their instruments' and group name, because the name Stradivarius overshadows the musicianship. Their Schubert Quartet in Gminor was the pinnacle of the evening performances: pristine clarity and really wonderful feeling of synchronized molecules, breathing, phrase-tails and razor perfect attacks. The Turina, a lovely passionate foil to the melodic triads of Schubert, allowed for great expression and rubato from the group, and except for a few slightly out of tune shared extended chords and blurred entrances - again a lovely experience. Bartek Niziol has a wonderful sound and excellent virtuosity, as well as their lovely cellist Maja Weber and David Greenlees, viola. Xiao Ming Wang, being second had few chances to shine; but remained rock solid in his subservient role.

An email Friday alerted me to the concert that evening, and  I grabbed the $30 (cheapest seats) with my friend Marc Pinsky just to hear the Bartok. This was my first experience hearing the entire quartet live after buying many recorded versions, was looking forward to hearing the real thing cast into the air. What is evident from the onset is that no recording has yet captured the exciting constant counterpoint and theme trading that weaves this work together. The Stradivari Quartet pulled every movement off so beautifully! The performance of the outside movements was so good that the crunchy Hungarian folk pitch sets attained a new whole realization of clarity for me. The super-fast 2nd movement moving as fast as imagination never lost a beat. The gloriously resonant and emotional 3rd movement shone like gold. The pizzicati and glissandi of the 4th movement had the audience tapping their feet and tiny chuckles emerged at the right places. Kudos to Stradivari Quartet.

The Brahms was the weakest of the works, both compositionally and in performance. Nonetheless, the melodies sang and sang (and sang). Sometimes, however, the tightness of the ensemble weakened as Bartek, the first violin would change tempo amid an airy curl of phrase leaving his group ahead or behind. The violist, David Greenlee took charge of solidifying the group in these occasions, the eyes of Maja constantly checking his bow.

Thank you, Winter Park Bach Festival, for bringing Bartok (and Bartek and co) to town!