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CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW
February 25, 2007
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Playing in Its Mother Tongue By Beeri Moalem
The charming Amadeo Modigliani String Quartet from France, scarcely four years old and already on its first tour in the United States, delighted a sold-out Kohl Mansion audience on Sunday with a pure and genuinely French performance of the Ravel String Quartet. The ensemble's appreciation and understanding of its fellow countryman elevated the Ravel far above its interpretations of the other two works on the program — Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade and Beethoven's Op. 59, No. 3.
Although the Amedeo Modigliani Quartet is to be commended for its innovation in playing Wolf's rarely heard work on its American tour, some pieces are seldom played for a reason. That piece is full of crazy textures, steep jumps in register, and jagged lines — overall, it's not highly conducive to being played on a string instrument, and even less encouraging when played on four of them. The Modigliani tried admirably and put a great deal of its characteristic youthful energy into the Serenade. But unfortunately, the result was muddy and incoherent: a beautiful high note there, an interesting tremolo here, and some fun pizzicato notes to boot, but nothing much to show for it all, and nothing for the ear to ride and truly enjoy. This blunder, however, was made up for shortly thereafter.
Nothing can replace your mother tongue. In the case of the French-born Quartet, its grasp of Ravel was unlike anything I've heard in recent memory. Having both played and heard Ravel's only quartet many times, I happen to be familiar with its challenges. For one, the music wants to slow down and taper off after almost every four-bar phrase. This leads to a gradual slowing of the piece, which usually results in a lethargic performance. While the Modigliani yielded to the natural temptation of tapering each phrase, every time they did so they somehow managed to bring the tempo right back to full swing, with hardly any effort. Consequently, the piece flowed gracefully, like a feather in the breeze. Another challenge presented by the Ravel quartet, and by French music in general, is finding a colorful instrumental palette. From the tranquil yet expressive whitewashed second theme in the first movement, the fuzzy and indistinct murmurings in the transitions, and the bright pizzicato explosions in the second movement, to the dirty screeches in the last movement, the Modigliani displayed a ravishing spectrum of musical color in its fascinating and beautiful rendition of the Ravel. More enchanting yet was the style in which first violinist Philippe Bernhard unraveled melodies with his bow out of the violin. His phrases had a seamless silkiness, and his vibrato was so smooth that its oscillations were virtually undetectable. In the melodic high registers, each note had a purity of its own. Bernhard stayed firmly in command of the ensemble for the entire evening, though his thematic melodies in the first movement of the Ravel were the highlights of the recital.
The Quartet's having proved itself as truly French with its authentic and indisputable rendition of the Ravel, a big question arose after intermission. The French have historically been unable to withstand aggressions from their neighbors the Germans — how would the Modigliani stand up to that ruthless German, Beethoven? Answer: on its own terms. It infused Beethoven's austere quartet Op. 59, No. 3, with a wide repertoire of hues, creating a uniquely dazzling and colorfully resonant performance. At times its stereotypical French restraint and manners may have prevented the players from truly sinking their teeth into the music. But at other times, etiquette was thrown out the window and the Modigliani showed that it can flex its muscle when required. And at its age, it had better — the Quartet currently has a cumulative age of exactly 100. Toward the end of the evening, however, youthful impetuousness and inexperience, or perhaps long-tour and long-concert fatigue, started to show its mischievous face. Phrases began to fall apart and the last movement started way too fast — faster, even, than Beethoven's controversially speedy metronome marking. The infamous final fugue was sloppy, but terribly exciting. The audience loved it nonetheless, giving the players a long standing ovation and, in return, getting an encore of the sempre-pizzicato fourth movement of Bartók's fourth quartet. Before playing the encore, the first violinist tried to mumble words of thanks in English, then gave up and declared, "I am French!" Yes, that sums up the Amedeo Modigliani Quartet.
(Beeri Moalem is a violist, teacher, writer, and composer.)
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