Hollywood stars attend world premieres. Chandeliers’ prisms refract light onto socialites’ jewels at orchestral galas. But outglittering them all were the rapt pupils of more than a hundred schoolchildren at the world premiere of George Tsontakis’ String Quartet No. 5 at the Yerba Buena Forum.
The quiet and concentrated attention of these young music lovers throughout a two-and-a-half-hour concert outperformed that of many adults attending shorter and easier to swallow programs. And these kids were faced with not just a contemporary premiere, but also with the last two Beethoven quartets, which have been considered notoriously difficult for audiences to digest.
How did this miracle occur, this restoration of the hope for the future of classical music? It is all thanks to the dedication of the Cypress String Quartet and its partners, whose innovative educational outreach programs have instilled in young listeners the auditory and historical knowledge — and curiosity — necessary to jump into the abstruse waters of the string quartet literature.
For most of the young listeners and other early arrivals, the evening began with a preconcert introduction by Tsontakis. Instead of the typical shopworn approach, in which musicians relax in chairs at some remove, responding to predictable, ill-prepared questions, Tsontakis took on the period by his lonesome, announcing “Rule One: Never talk longer than your piece!” He then strode back and forth within inches of the front row, impressing upon listeners the vital importance of what he called, with homage to Mendelssohn, “songs without words,” the freedom and challenge of music without a predefined meaning to force one’s own imagination to make sense of the sounds. Finally, he spoke about how hearing the last Beethoven quartet and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in the same week catalyzed him into choosing a lifetime career as a composer, and how his latest quartet, dedicated to composer George Rochberg (1918-2005), repaid early encouragement he received from the man considered a traitor by some for abandoning atonality.
After some delay, the concert proper began with the enormous Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131. After a promising beginning, the Cypress bogged down a bit in the extended middle movement and was slightly off in its entry timings in the following presto. The concluding allegro, however, was well-executed, bringing forth screams from the young members of the audience, who must have been thinking this was as good as a rock concert.
After intermission, the Cypress returned with the final Beethoven quartet, Op. 135 in F. The ensemble, having reached its stride, gave a performance that elicited strenuous applause, even between movements. Notable was the way cellist Jennifer Kloetzel captured the attention of the audience with her eyes and then guided it around the rest of the members of the quartet, generating a feeling of confidence and security.
Following another short break came the Tsontakis premiere. The piece is remarkable for its fluidity, flexibility, subtlety, and generally quiet satisfaction. Its two movements can be played in any order, or even separately. As Tsontakis described it over a $10 burger at Mel’s before the concert:
“I don’t even call them movements. They are two poems; not antecedent and consequent. Each part has an antecedent and a consequent built in. This is not a dramatic quartet. It is something that flows phantasmagorically, one thing into the other. It’s gentle. The piece is not going for the instant gratification. It’s a piece that, if it were writing, it would be John Cheever. It wouldn’t be Stephen King. It’s a composers’ piece, in a way. And a mature piece, which doesn’t always make it as accessible, despite its obvious tonality. You write a piece, sometimes, to get healthier. I think this piece I wrote because it just made me feel good. It’s music I’d like to hear. ... I’ve tried to write a piece that I’d just like to put on again and again. Nonthreatening in a way, just gentle and sweet, but not pandering.”
The first movement began with sepia-toned melody in C minor that never returned but wasn’t missed, due to the evolutionary nature of the subsequent elaboration and introduction of other half-remembered motives. Numerous stepwise trills added to the sonic landscape, but a moderately intense climax kept listeners out of dreamland. The Cypress performed this first movement with real feeling and obvious pleasure.
The second movement was a bit longer and more subtle, but highly enjoyable. It seemed to contain hidden promise that surely will benefit both listeners and the Cypress Quartet in the course of repeated exposure. In fact, a more satisfactory program might have included just the Op. 135 and two performances of the new Tsontakis, so worthy is this new addition to the string literature.
Mature as Tsontakis designates his latest, it wasn’t at all too “old” for the kids in the audience. Of the many I asked postconcert, about three out of four preferred the Tsontakis to the Beethoven, with enthusiasm. Hats off to Tsontakis, the Cypress Quartet, and the glittering eyes, minds, and hearts of the next generation of music-lovers and musicians who witnessed a remarkable event.
(Jeff Dunn is a freelance critic with a B.A. in music and a Ph.D. in geologic education. A composer of piano and vocal music, he is a member of NACUSA and president of Composers Inc.)
©2006 Jeff Dunn, all rights reserved