Sunday, June 14, 2015



We heard a fabulous opening concert of the Great Lakes Chamber Musical Festival last night. Although the piece of music I was most looking forward to, Barber's Adagio for Strings, was a disappointment. The Emerson Quartet, who played the whole program brilliantly, played this piece  in a way I'd never heard it before--without a string orchestra behind them.It seemed thin and too muted. After listening to several versions on you tube, I see the fault was mine.

Have you heard it played both ways? Which did you prefer?

This was the entire program.

OPENING NIGHT
Seligman Performing Arts Center  |  8:00 p.m.
Performance sponsored by Aviva & Dean Friedman

Martinu | Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola, H. 313
Philip Setzer, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola

Dvořák | Terzetto in C major, Op. 74

Eugene Drucker, violin; Philip Setzer, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola

Bloch | Suite Hébraïque

Lawrence Dutton, viola; Paul Watkins, piano

Barber | Adagio from String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11

Emerson String Quartet

Dvořák | String Quartet No 12. in F major, Op. 96, “American”

Emerson String Quartet

Here it is as performed the last time I heard it.

 

3 comments:

Todd Mason said...

I'll take it either way, but it's not my favorite Barber. That's a pretty impressive concert!

pattinase (abbott) said...

What is your favorite Barber?

Todd Mason said...

I was expecting that question, but I'm hard-pressed to suggest solely one. It's partly just that the "Adagio" is over-familiar...not nearly the worst of his familiar works, as Water Music is for Handel, but similarly to how "Fanfare" and "Appalachian Spring" aren't actually the best Coplands.