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[Published in and copyright by the Yellow Springs News,
May 2008]

Chamber Music Competition 2008

By Christopher Durrenberger

YELLOW SPRINGS — Somehow Chamber Music Yellow Springs’ Annual Competition Finals finds a way of topping itself year after year.  The 24th installment was no exception.

The Presbyterian Church was nearly filled with patrons May 4 to witness the iO and Jasper String Quartets perform for the $5,000 in prize money at stake. The New York based iO ensemble won the toss and elected to perform first.

Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 20, No. 4 (1772) broke the ice this evening as the youthful ensemble warmed up with this early portrait of Classical style. Exhibiting complete control, this group displayed extreme contrasts in volume and tonal color while communicating nuanced musical gestures.

First violinist Christina McGann clearly stimulated her musical colleagues through her sweet sound and rhythmic energy. Great eye contact and synergy ebbed from violist Elizabeth Weisser as she clearly felt every note they played. Intimate and thoughtful solos rang true from Chris Gross’s cello as the entire quartet truly played as one instrument. Nary a better Haydn Quartet have these ears heard live.

An impassioned performance of Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 in C Op. 36 (1945) completed the first half of the evening’s offerings.  Seascape imagery wafted from their instruments as they adeptly maneuvered through arpeggios and harmonic wind sound effects. Tumultuous surf seemed to crash into the audience as members of the iO Quartet tossed penultimate C major chords at them.

Oberlin in origination and on their way to Yale, the Jasper String Quartet dazzled the audience with Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4 (1928). A spontaneous combustion of string sound exploded from the stage as they drove through dissonant harmonies and rhythmic col legno ostinatos. Nothing seemed to faze first fiddler J. Freivogel as he effortlessly worked through every devilishly difficult passage with a smile on his face. Visceral intensity shot from second violinist Sae Niwa’s eyes as she swayed vigorously to the music.

The young ensemble continued their demonstration of tight ensemble, choreographed playing and driving energy in their performance of Schubert’s String Quartet in D minor “Death and the Maiden” (1824).   Climactic phrases were pushed to their breaking point as they put their heart and souls into every note. The ensemble also demonstrated their ability to provide exceptionally homogeneous accompaniments to support fabulous solo passagework. The final “Presto” movement danced in perfect synchronicity and their full court press to an exhilarating finish summoned an instantaneous standing ovation.

After a short deliberation by the judges, the verdict was delivered: second prize to iO and first to the Jasper String Quartet. While both groups exhibited unparalleled musicianship, the nod went to the performance with more drive and intensity.

Stay tuned for the CMYS 25th Anniversary Season featuring the Daedalus String Quartet with pianist Awadagin Pratt performing the Brahms Quintet, Carmina String Quartet performing the Schubert Quintet, Atlantic Brass, a trio of sisters in the Albers String Trio, and what should prove to be another exciting 24th Annual Competition Finals.

[Published in and copyright by the Dayton Daily News,
February 13, 2008]

Ying Quartet wins over audience

YELLOW SPRINGS — A capacity crowd sat shoulder to shoulder in the pews at the First Presbyterian Church of Yellow Springs on Sunday evening to hear the Ying Quartet perform as part of the Chamber Music Yellow Springs concert series.

The weather was frigid, but the welcome was warm for the Chicago-based ensemble, which would otherwise have been attending Sunday's Grammy Award's ceremony in Los Angeles, where it was nominated in the best classical ensemble performance category.

The quartet learned shortly before the Yellow Springs concert that it had not won (the group eighth blackbird took this year's award), but it gave a winning performance Sunday evening, nonetheless.

At first blush, the program appeared to be a diverse mix of musical eras, styles and geographical sources, ranging from Franz Joseph Haydn's Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1, to Maurice Ravel's Quartet in F Major to a collection of works by contemporary Chinese-American composers, which the group labled "A Musical Dim Sum," as in the also-named dining experience at a Chinese restaurant.

Part of the brilliance of the program, in addition to the stellar playing, was the connections that could be heard between the works.

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[Published in and copyright by the Dayton Daily News,
April 2, 2008]

Premiere of Classical Piece Connects Far-away Places

A German quartet debuts a work by a composer who grew up in Yellow Springs

YELLOW SPRINGS — A spiritual sense of place is the personal landscape on which New York-based composer Drew Hemenger constructed his new work "Three Inner Moments" (String Quartet No. 2), which received its world premiere Sunday evening in Yellow Springs.

Performing the piece as part of its appearance on the Chamber Music Yellow Springs series was the internationally acclaimed Vogler String Quartet from Berlin, Germany.
 

Deceptively simple in its conception, the work needed an ensemble of the Vogler's musical caliber to bring it to life, although it was interesting to note the fact that a German group was responsible for unveiling such a decidedly American piece.

For the place — or rather, the three places — that figure in Hemenger's work are part of a thoroughly American landscape and psyche: Glen Helen, in Yellow Springs, where Hemenger grew up; Union Square, Manhattan, days after 9/11; and Fire Island, New York, where Hemenger vacations.

But the work of an artist is to take the personal and find the universal, which is what Hemenger — who was in attendance Sunday — has done, finding in each place not only personal significance, but also metaphoric places where both loss and hope intertwine in poignant harmony — a human experience with significance for all.

Sunday evening's concert also featured a zesty rendering of Haydn's Quartet in E-flat Major, and a memorably sublime performance of Beethoven's Quartet in E Minor, Op. 39, No. 2.

A very special night for all.

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