MIRO QUARTET
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Friday (31 March 2023)
On the same evening Chloe Chua performed with the Singapore Symphony at Victoria Concert Hall, the Miro Quartet from USA did very well by getting a large audience at Kent Ridge in a programme of string quartets not regularly heard in Singapore. Formed in 1995, the quartet got its name from Catalan artist Joan Miro (1893-1983), famous for his colourful surrealist paintings. The University of Texas-based ensemble of violinists Daniel Ching and William Fedkenheuer, violist John Largess and cellist Joshua Gindele last performed here in 2014.
The programme opened with Haydn’s Quartet in B flat major Op.64 No.3, which demonstrated a clear sense of cohesion and ensemble. In the opening Vivace assai, a voluminous yet incisive sound was established, with none of those mincing and brittle period instrument sensibilities. Haydn has never sounded this modern. This continued into the Adagio slow movement and the humour of the Minuet and Trio. The audience applauded between every movement but the quartet took it in good spirit. They were engaging a curious crowd of new listeners, and that cannot be a bad thing. The concluding Allegro con spirito, bristling with energy, brought out plaudits of a definitive kind.
Next came the Singapore premiere of the 16-minute single-movement Home (2019) by Baltimore-based Pulitzer prize-winning American composer Kevin Puts, better-known in Singapore circles as the Peabody Institute mentor of local composers Chen Zhangyi, Emily Koh and Jonathan Shin.
Inspired by the global emigration crisis of 2018, the sense of home comforts took on a special significance. Beginning in the warm sanctuary of C major, richness of sonority permeated the air, radiating like a full string ensemble. This soon slided into a tension-filled central section of harmonic instability, where shards of dissonance, harmonics and glissandi symbolised the homelessness of displaced persons and dislocated families. There was a resolution, however the return to the comforting embrace of C major had a difference, an indication that lives had been changed and the idea of home moved on. The moving performance, with strong narrative sense was aided by Daniel Ching’s helpful preamble.
Dvorak’s Quartet No.13 in G major (Op.106) completed a very satisfying evening. Sounds familiar? That was because the Oberlin-based Verona Quartet (violinist Jonathan Ong’s group) had just performed it as recently as last September. Renewed acquaintance of a less often heard work paid dividends as one discovered new perspectives not previously realised. When memories are triggered, fresh impulses emerge like the pleasure of meeting old friends. The two main motifs of the opening Allegro moderato later return in the final Allegro con fuoco, albeit with altered states, and deja vu becomes complete.
Earlier, the slow movement’s Adagio ma non troppo reminded one of Dvorak’s Largo (From The New World), one long dumka, a Slavic lament of yearning and nostalgia for bygone times. This was contrasted by the edgier Molto vivace third movement, with insistent rhythms which oozed folk music from every pore. Clearly this programme was about “returning”, with the cyclic form bringing back previously heard themes, now transformed on repeated listening. This was a rivetting performance by the Miros from start to end, capped off by an encore which was another glorious reliving of old times. A Harold Arlen-sanctioned arrangement of his hit song Over The Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz was just the perfect melody to go home with.
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