| Review The News-Times of Friday, November 8, 2002 had
this to say: |
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Piano Quartet Vibrant in Newtown
What is exciting, scintillating, pulsating and finally breathtaking? The
answer is simple: the Los Angeles Piano Quartet! This "premier"
quartet appeared in concert at Edmond Town Hall on Sunday, under the auspices
of the Newtown Friends of Music. The Quartet has enjoyed a wide range
of appearances that include Public Radio's NY "Live from WNCN"
and European tours in Holland and Italy as well.
The Quartet's members are Xak Bjerken, piano, a professor of piano at
Cornell University; Michi Wiancko, violin, a graduate of the Cleveland
Institute of Music; Katherine Murdock, viola, a faculty member of SUNY,
at Stony Brook, Long Island; and Peter Rejto, cello, professor of cello
at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
Their program expanded a wide range of styles that gave each player the
opportunity to display not only his or her technical prowess, but also
to reveal the in-depth understanding of the music itself.
The concert opened with the three-movement Mozart "G Minor Quartet."
Following was the French composer Gabriel Faure's "Quartet in C Minor,
Opus 15." After intermission the program concluded with the "Quartet
No.2 in E-flat, Opus 87," by the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak.
The Los Angeles Piano Quartet deftly demonstrated what chamber music is
all about: a vibrant dialogue, a conversation if you will, among the players.
The dialogue includes the most subtle interplay of musical motifs, which
if verbal would be the oohs and ahhs, the side remarks and demonstrative
grunts in a conversation.
Many music lovers come to appreciate chamber music somewhat late in their
listening careers. It is rather like the rarefied meat of composing, the
pure heart of the musical artichoke, so to speak, requiring cultivation
and attentive listening.
The opening Mozart quartet is a sprightly composition, full of buoyancy
and the composer's sense of humor. The pianist's tone perfectly fitted
the mood of the music, as was the case in the entire program where the
large nine-foot instrument was never allowed to overpower the string instruments.
In the Faure quartet, the piano perpetually weaves around the strings
in a series of running figures across the keyboard. The cellist projected
a lavish tone in the slow third movement. Throughout the work, the violin
and viola, often imitating each other, displayed a fine sense of sharing
themes. It was extraordinary how the four artists were in complete agreement,
creating the illusion at ties that the entire quartet was but one instrument.
The dynamics of all four were always perfectly matched.
In the concluding work, the Dvorak quartet, one could hear traces of that
composer's "Piano Quintet." Dvorak has a style of piano writing,
tremolos and such, which at times seems somewhat dated or musty. But the
music is nevertheless magnificent. Every instrument has the opportunity
to be heard and to sing, with the cello's opening solo of the second movement
being especially lyrical.
What words can be employed to describe such music and music making? Perhaps
as Shakespeare would have said: "Give me excess of it."
Hats off from "Hat City" to the Newtown Friends of Music for
bringing the Los Angeles Piano Quartet to our doorsteps.
Howard Tuvelle
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