Ives Quartet - Performance Review

By Keith Kreitman, Contributor

I once wrote that the Ives Quartet had the most beautifully rich sound of any string quartet I had ever heard. Its performance last weekend at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Palo Alto seems to have improved upon that.

With new first violinist Bettina Mussumeli, I wondered whether there would be a change in the quartet's wonderful sonority, but she fits right into that family of Susan Freier, second violin; Scott Woolweaver, viola and Stephen Harrison, cello, as if they were all musical siblings.

Harrison in 1983 was one of the founders of the Ives Quartet as the quartet in residence at Stanford University. There it remained until 1998, when it declared artistic independence and moved on to the national and international stages with growing reputation and recognition.

Resting upon the base of Harrison's cello - and he is unsurpassed by any cellist I have ever heard in richness of tone - it is the group's control of dynamics and timbre shadings and impeccable phrasing that is so engaging to
the ear.

In fact, I sat in a location where I couldn't see them bowing, just to be able to float, without visual distraction, upon that magical carpet of sound.

Even among the most celebrated of string quartets, one is conscious of four individual artists performing together. But with Ives it seems as if there is only one multi-instrumented performer.

And its choice of Franz Schubert's 1824 romantic Quartet in D Minor, D.810, was just the right vehicle for its sonorous strength.

And as if to prove it could even render dissonances beautifully to the Romantically trained ear, it opened the program with Arnold Schoenberg's Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 10 and made me realize how this composer's music, shocking to the musical sensibilities of many of us, has entered the mainstream.

From 1907, this was one of Schoenberg's earlier, more traditional works, before he ventured much deeper into atonality. But it still caused some
dismay.

It was revolutionary, not only by beginning to break away from centuries of
tonal music but, with the addition of a female voice in the last two movements singing poems by German Stefan George, it became in effect a vocal quintet.

Singing in Saturday's performance, Elza van den Heever blended in as if a fifth member of the family. This native of Johannesburg, South Africa, ranks among the best. She filled the church with power, but with never a loss of intonation, throughout her entire vocal range; her German diction in verse was perfect.

The German translation of Schoenberg's name is "beautiful mountain" and he certainly did develop a new and beautiful peak in serious music. The Ives Quintet with van den Heever climbed it with ease to show us the beautiful view.

Keith Kreitman is a freelance writer. You can reach him by calling (650) 348-4327 or by email at rainykeith@aol.com.

Ives Quartet
Performance Review

Inside Bay Area: Ives Quartet provides beautiful musical view

Ives Quartet Performance Review

Inside Bay Area: Ives Quartet provides beautiful musical view

Ives Quartet
Performance Review