A sampling of the Calder Quartet

The Calder Quartet came to Jordan Hall on Friday night as part of the Boston Celebrity Series. These thirty-somethings are grounded in the classical repertoire, but they also champion new music. They divided the concert between past masters and living composers; here is a distillation of their program.

Sabina for string quartet by Andrew Norman – A fluttering shimmer of sunlit sonority. New music can be daunting, but this piece is mesmerizing. Click here for the Calders' recording of the work on SoundCloud. Andrew Bulbrook, the second violinist and a Massachusetts native, addressed the audience several times through the evening and let us know that Sabina will be included in an upcoming overview of new music. Based on this winning performance I am eager to give the other works a listen.

String Quartet in F major by Maurice Ravel – The players were fully engaged in the delights of the score, and the audience loved it. Honestly, if the performers aren't enjoying themselves in this work, they shouldn't be performing anymore. Click here for the first movement.

Arcadiana for string quartet, Opus 12 by Thomas Adès – Elusive. Like a stack of sheet music taken by a gust of wind. Just when you think you have caught a tune it twists and turns into something else. Click here for the sixth (and most accessible) movement, "O Albion". Bulbrook told us that Andrew Norman was concerned about having his new piece played on the same program, because he considers Arcadiana the best thing written in the last fifty years. The Calders have an ongoing relationship with Adès and will soon release an album entirely of his works. The composer will join in to play his piano quintet.

String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Opus 95 by Ludwig van Beethoven – The best compliment I can pay the musicians is that this work sounded like a fresh piece of music. Equal praise must go to the man who wrote it 200 years ago. Perhaps the Calders pushed the third movement a bit too much, verging on recklessness, but their energy and engagement couldn't be faulted. Click here for the snappy first movement.

One final note: The quartet took its name in tribute to American sculptor Alexander Calder. Here is a picture of his work Eagle, now standing in Seattle.

Paris in the 1920s

This weekend a French conductor leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a program of four works that had their premiere in Paris in the 1920s.

The BSO slimmed down to a chamber orchestra for much of tonight's program, and guest conductor Stéphane Denève got the musicians to underplay in an easygoing, genial style. The reduced volume revealed textural details of the scores, and it was only during the loudest ensemble sections that I was reminded how much power the Boston Symphony can unleash. Denève had the first and second violins divided left and right on the stage instead of this year's usual configuration of all the violins stacked to the left of the podium. From my vantage point at the top left balcony I couldn't detect any antiphonal counterpoint; perhaps those seated center in the auditorium had a better stereo experience. It will be worth listening with headphones to the live radio broadcast of Saturday night's concert.

The first work was a suite from Igor Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella, based on music of two centuries earlier by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Sleuthing musicologists have determined that over half of the source tunes were not by Pergolesi at all, but no matter. Stravinsky delighted in reorchestrating this material, overlaying his harmonic and rhythmic signature and launching what would be his neoclassical style.

Denève started the next work, Sergei Prokofiev's first violin concerto, in profile with a finger to his lips. This was a signal for the audience to allow the orchestra to enter at its quietest. Rarely have I heard the typically restive Symphony Hall so absolutely still. The soloist, James Ehnes, plays a 1715 Stradivarius. His tone grabbed my attention with the first note, and he had me completely focused by the third. His playing highlighted the lyricism that underlies much of Prokofiev's work. Ehnes treated us to an encore: the Adagio from Bach's Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005. What a gorgeous sound. During intermission I requested as many of his recordings as I could find from my library network.

[James Ehnes was born in Manitoba and currently resides in Florida. As a New Englander who has endured one of the most brutal winters in recent memory, I can empathize.]

The first piece after intermission was the score to Darius Milhaud's ballet La création du monde. The work only calls for eighteen musicians, including a featured alto saxophone. Milhaud drew upon American styles, and much of the music evokes Paul Whiting's jazz orchestra. As fine as the BSO players are, they didn't make a very convincing swing band.

The evening closed with a suite from Francis Poulenc's ballet Les Biches. Although this was the first time the BSO performed the work, Denève and the full orchestra were completely in their element, displaying light finesse and Gallic charm. After all, the Boston Symphony earned the reputation in the early twentieth century as the greatest French orchestra in the world.