SFist Interviews the Guarneri String Quartet
Tomorrow night, under the auspices of SF Performances at Herbst Theater, the Guarneri Quartet will play its last concert in San Francisco; they're hanging up their instruments after forty-five years of service. If that weren't reason enough to go see them one last time - -they pretty much define "string quartet" - they do present an exciting program. They may have one foot in retirement, but they'll still play the Mendelssohn Octet and the exciting Bay Area premiere of Derek Bermel's Passing Through.
The program was supposed to include two other Bay Area premieres, a string quartet by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the music conductor of the L.A. Symphony and another octet by Johannes String Quartet, and the violist of the Johannes had to rush home due to a death in the family. Bummer. He'll have an excellent sub, but they can't get the unfamiliar work ready by tomorrow night, unfortunately, they'll play Dvorak instead.
We chatted with the Guarneri Quartet's violist, Michael Tree, and the first thing we wanted to know was, you guys are retiring now, we hope your retirement plan is not invested in the stock market! We're not fully retiring as individual, Michael said.
The quartet as such is retiring after this season, but of course we are all eager to continue working and performing, only as individuals or guests of other groups. It's not quite a retirement on the personal level. We knew it, with this economy, we'll have to work till we're eighty.
We talked to Michael the week after Tina Turner un-retired for the n-th time. Good idea? We've been asked the question many times, but I think it's definite. After this season, we will not consider playing more concerts. We still have another eight months or so of concertizing. I don't think there's much chance of us being able to come back again. In the case of the string quartet, the idea of coming back on tour would require a good deal of rehearsing. So it would take more time than you might expect. We will all be quite busy teaching and doing other performing.
They'll play the Mendelssohn Octet. What makes this piece stand out? The sonorities are of course very, very different from a normal chamber of music work. When you have eight string players playing voices that are almost always equally divided, you have a wonderful richness in the sound. There is a form of energy generated that certainly audiences can feel immediately. In addition to the sonorities, and the challenges of balance that inevitably occur, the material, the very material that we play, is of such as an exalted level, that Mendelssohn were to be known for just this one work, it would still place him among the great composers. It is a truly inspired work, written when he was very young, in his middle teens, which makes Mendelssohn one of the most remarkable composer at an early age, and to be compared favorably with Mozart.
I don't know the historical background of the work. I would think he just as a young person, he was very experimental. He wrote string symphonies when he was 13 or 14 years old, and that was a form that was unknown. In other words, he was inventive and very precocious. Also, his first opus where piano quartet music, of which there were little examples, with the exception of Mozart who wrote two piano quartets. But that was a very little known form. There were Dvorak and Schumann of course, but it was still far lesser known than the piano quintets. Mendelssohn showed the ability to write works that were not very conventional.
They are playing a new piece by Derek Bermel, and we had never heard of him before! Who is he? He is a younger man, but he's had notable successes. I have to admit we don't know him personally, but we're able to hear tapes of various composers who were approached and were willing to join us in this venture. We liked what we heard. It was very characteristically American, for one thing, he uses jazz elements in the piece that we're playing, which begins oddly enough with a lot of melodic lines taken from Beethoven. The main thrust or theme of the piece, which is not long, one movement only, is based entirely on the slow movement of Opus 135 of Beethoven, which is the last of the great works of Beethoven for string quartet.
Throughout the piece, he uses various effects that are closer to popular or jazz music, even though the work is based on a very serious Beethoven movement. He uses the device of having us sometime make slides or glissandi rather than going in a downward direction after a note, rather than what we normally think as an upward slide. It's very much in the tradition of jazz fiddlers, it gives an impression at that moment of something rather American sounding. But people like Grappelli also employ that same technique. It's just a rather subtle touch. It just implies that the very last note of a phrase often has a tail attached to it, a downward slide. When the four of us do it together, it's very effective.
Since they are named the Guarneri quartet, you'd think they play on instruments made by Guarneri himself. Oh no! By no means! As a matter of fact, none of us owned Guarneri instruments at the time of having formed our quartet. There's a story behind the name. There was a Guarneri Quartet in Europe that played basically between the two World Wars and they were based in Germany. And the violist of that quartet later became the violist of the Budapest Quartet and of course they all emigrated to America. We knew him very well, personally. His name was Boris Kroyt. Boris Kroyt played two or 3 years with the Budapest Quartet and suggested however that we might keep the name Guarneri alive, almost as a successor to the original Guarneri Quartet. That came at a time we were desperate to find a name in a hurry, there was publicity coming out, we were in the early stages of beginning rehearsal and whatnot, we needed a name quickly. So we just thought that it sounded rather important. Certainly to string player, the name Guarneri is equal to that of Stradivari, or Amanti or any of the great Italian makers of that time.
Now, ironically, I think I'm the only one that owns a Guarneri instrument, but it does not even get played in the quartet itself, because it's a violin and I play viola in the Guarneri Quartet. I was trained as a violinist. That the only Guarneri in the Guarneri quartet, and that's the one that's never heard in quartet music.
They're closing a chapter, do they get emotional or contemplative? I think we can't even predict how it will feel when it actually happens. Naturally, there will be a mixed emotion. Already now, wherever we play, we realize it's the last time. So there's a certain poignancy. Except for cities like NY or Philadelphia, cities close to where we live, where we play numerous time. But when we're on tour, like in SF, this past week, we played Pasadena, and also in Carmel, and La Jolla, we realize just from the last few days, that it's the last time we play as a quartet in this places. So of course there's tinge of sadness and of "never again" about it. But we feel so lucky and so grateful to have enjoyed 45 years of playing a great repertoire, and we're on very solid personal ground, we'll always know each other and spend time together, and perhaps even play together, but not publicly.
We owe a great debt of thanks of gratitude to the many friends we made on tour throughout Europe and the Far East and South America, Israel, and it's been an unforgettable experience. For any string player, the quartet ranks as one of the great privileges. The repertoire is virtually endless, and also the pleasure of being together. There is so much excitement and so much challenge involved in quartet playing for a living, and we've been very blessed to be part of all that.
We are blessed with one last opportunity to hear them!