To open the 17th season of the Flagler Museum Music Series on Jan. 13 came the New Orford String Quartet of Canada.
Made up of two principals of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, violinist Jonathan Crow and cellist Brian Manker, and two lead chairs from the Montreal Symphony, violinist Andrew Wan and violist Eric Nowlin — soon to take the first chair of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Many years ago the Orford String Quartet was formed at a young peoples’ music summer camp at Mount-Orford, Quebec, giving its first concert on Aug. 11, 1965. After 26 years and over 2,000 concerts the quartet disbanded. It had become the best-known and most illustrious in all Canada, giving its last concert on July 28, 1991. In July of 2009 the idea of reviving the Orford with the appellation, New Orford String Quartet, came about and was met by unanimous critical acclaim in its first concert at the newly named Orford Arts Centre in Canada.
Their program at the Flagler consisted of two late quartets by Beethoven. In youth, we become intrigued with the three B’s — Bach , Beethoven and Brahms — because our teachers guide us there. Growing up in England during World War II, the incessant playing of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with its dot-dot-dot -dash, opening — Morse code for “V,” for “victory” — was heard ad nauseam on radio. As maturity dawned, I moved away from hackneyed Beethoven to discover symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Elgar, Walton, Shostakovich and Rawsthorne.
But now, happily, in later life the New Orford have rekindled my interest in Beethoven.
Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 (in B-flat, Op. 130) was written in 1825-26, a year before his death in 1827, and dedicated to Prince Nikolaus Galitzin, his patron at the time. It is a work of rich density and concentration, appearing at times to sound like a fuller bodied string group than just four players. What is also unusual is that it is in six movements. A very slow introduction is followed by a quick Allegro, and as this movement flows along the slow and fast rhythms are intermingled. The playing and precision of the New Orford was exquisite. Their warm, smooth, silken sounds, as these beautifully intertwined melodies unfold, speak to the very heart of Beethoven’s genius.
After showing off their brilliant musicianship in the sprightly second movement, the Orford demonstrated unmatched delicacy in the third. The complex tunes all have lovely accompaniments; particularly fetching were the continual downward scales, plucked by the cello, viola and second violin as the first violinist, Crow, played sweetly and subtly over their accompaniment.
After the beauties of the fourth and fifth movements, the quartet broke the mood with the Finale, the Grosse Fuge. Four quick phrases open it, each with a long pause in-between. A viola plays the theme and we’re off at breakneck speed into one of the greatest fugues ever written. The overall effect is one of almost-constant dissonance, so modern-sounding it could have been written by the likes of Alban Berg or Arnold Schoenberg. Igor Stravinsky even said the Grosse Fuge would remain modern forever. But this is Beethoven in 1826.
It is massive in its construction, and overwhelming coming at the end of the quartet, where it was originally before being withdrawn and published separately (as Op. 133), and replaced by a more conventional finale. This titanic movement received an amazing performance from the New Orford; keeping keen eyes focused on the music of the fugue, they never once flinched from its driving difficult density. A full house gave them a very warm reception, quietly at first, for they, too, were recovering from the overpowering music they had just heard.
Switching chairs, Andrew Wan became first violinist for the second Beethoven work, the String Quartet No. 16 (in F, Op. 135). Virtually his last finished piece, it returns to a four-movement structure, and is almost Haydn-like in its lightness and simple charm. The terrible troubles of Beethoven’s last year of life and his complete deafness are not reflected in the music.
First the Allegretto opens with a long theme with a question and answer. Simple Haydn-like passages follow that are richly tuneful. The second-movement Scherzo is elegiac and reflective at times with a central theme that is a rustic dance. The ostinato patterns were played rigorously by the New Orford. And the reflective parts had that lightness of touch that is inescapably their signature sound and very ethereal.
Third came a Lento assai, also marked cantante e tranquillo. It is a brief lullaby of 54 measures that Beethoven described as a sweet song of calm and peace. (I wonder it hasn’t been adopted by yoga practitioners worldwide; it’s so calming.) The finale is called “The Difficult Decision’’ with words about a payment dispute scrawled angrily over the manuscript. The cello and viola set the question, the two violins provide the answers. In this somewhat disjointed opening I detected echoes of a future Mendelssohn its livelier passages. Now the violins have the questions and the cello and viola the answers as the music returns to the opening theme, however briefly. Plucked strings denote the ending as it tails off without the usual musical full stop.
For an encore, the New Orford played Pavane, by the contemporary Canadian composer Francois Dompierre. It was also very lovely and reflective in similar mood to the second movement of Opus 135 — and equally well played by the New Orford, with their fascinating lightness of touch.