Holliger quartet revealed as masterpiece by JACK Quartet
Cutting Edge Concerts doesn’t always present music that fits its name, but artistic director Victoria Bond’s choice to open their new season was a group found at that edge, and beyond: the JACK Quartet. Wednesday night in the Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, the quartet played music that, despite its age, is still fresher and more daring than most new works that come out of the conservatories and graduate programs.
Loosely hung on the Pierre Boulez centennial, JACK played music from that composer’s Livre 1, 2, 3c, the Six Bagatelles, Op. 9 by Anton Webern, Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 5, and after intermission John Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts and Heinz Holliger’s String Quartet No. 2. On paper, that covered roughly five decades and an equal number of compositional schools of thought. Unsurprisingly, there were some stunning moments and, surprisingly, some things that were off.
That’s no knock on JACK, although for the first time in over a decade seeing them perform not all their playing was immaculate. There was the concept of centering Boulez, whose music more and more seems to be haunted by ambivalence, and also fitting Webern and Glass next to each other, which felt ungainly.
The Livre were more a curiosity than anything. JACK played selections from this large-scale and unfinished early work for string quartet, which Boulez later withdrew from performance (he later turned the material into one of his better works, Livre pour cordes for string orchestra). Like the composer’s Douz notations, this is a collection of gestures that have intriguing nuggets of ideas and technique, but are also at odds with each other and neither come together in a coherent structure nor demonstrate clear discontinuous form. This was a typically fine JACK performance, but one was impatient for the concert to move along.
The performance of the Bagatelles was exceptional in every way. JACK can play with a combination of delicacy and precision few quartets can equal. That was ideal in this music, which is shorn down and atomized to an extreme degree—yet still full of (compressed) lyricism and even some mysticism. There’s an expressionist way to play this and a modernist way, and JACK took the latter approach, shining a warm, penetrating light on the sequence of notes, while still producing a sustained, flowing sound in the “Sehr langsam.”
JACK’s sound in Glass’s romantic quartet was rich and robust, but there were times when their playing was not up to the level one expects from them. As the music went along, the intonation between instruments began to separate, especially with violinists Austin Wulliman and Christopher Otto, and the same for their coordination in the rapid runs in the middle of the piece. The arch form of the piece meant the middle third movement was roughest, but the climactic section of the fourth movement also seemed effortful, as if the quartet was running low on energy. The rapid runs in the final movement were more precise, but JACK’s usual tone quality wasn’t there, although the coda and final pages were lovely.
The things that were so virtuous in the Bagatelles were more so in Cage’s gorgeous piece. This is simple music that is hard to play, it demands exact technique and a flat affect that still has a sense of meaning behind it. The gentleness of the sound can mask the rhythmic rigor Cage built the work on. This performance was a marvel of clarity and details, with the feeling of comfort and satisfaction that comes from musicians fully confident in what they are doing.
There was a historical connection between Holliger and Boulez in that the former studied with the latter for a time. Another was how the concert started with music that was mostly gestures looking for some purpose, and ended with music that was full of gestures concentrated through an underlying urgency to express something. Holliger’s String Quartet No. 2 is a masterpiece, one of the finest in the modern literature and received an extraordinary performance.
Its shape is a downward ramp, starting with slicing, aggressive energy, then gradually descending through complex, rumbling turmoil into an absolutely haunting stasis. This could be the drama of anything from a personal experience to the journey to the heat death of the universe; regardless, the music clearly has an expressive purpose. That and technical dazzlements made it a thrilling, gripping experience.
The technical demands are fiendish, and JACK played with agility and seeming ease, even when having to rapidly bow and also pluck and hammer the strings with the left hand, simultaneously. After the slicing, rumbling first part, the music slows and quiets and turns deeply mysterious and haunting, with the players singing, softy, in harmony with their instruments and each other. It was spellbinding and uncanny. The other demands are energy and focus, and JACK had these in spades. This was JACK at their best, and truly was the cutting edge of music making.
The Rudersdal Chamber Players perform in the Thalia Theater, 7:30 p.m. April 16. cuttingedgeconcerts.org
