May 4, 2024
Spivey Hall
Morrow, GA – USA
Isidore Quartet (Adrian Steele & Phoenix Avalon, violins; Devin Moore, viola; Joshua McClendon, cello).
Joseph HAYDN: String Quartet No. 25 in C Major, Op. 20, No. 2
Billy CHILDS: String Quartet No. 2, Awakening
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132
William Ford | 7 MAY 2024
The end of the 2023/24 season at Spivey Hall at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, is within sight. This remarkable and exceptional series has presented some of the world’s greatest solo and chamber ensembles. On Saturday afternoon, one of the final chamber groups, the Isidore String Quartet (ISQ), presented a program featuring two classic-era masterpieces, bookending a contemporary work.
The ISQ is a relatively young ensemble that created a stir with its founding in about 2019 to the degree that the group was a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2023. The members of the group are violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore, and cellist Joshua McClendon. They all are graduates of the Juilliard School, and each has been mentored by leading pedagogues in the New York area.
The program began with a piece from 1772: Haydn’s String Quartet No. 25 in C major, Op. 20, No. 2. Haydn is credited with making chamber music move from Muzak-for-the-rich to a genre with its own importance not only in the salon but also in the concert hall. He is credited with refining the model of a four-movement sonata-form work, with the first movement being bright and lively, the second being more somber, followed by a third movement with high spirits (often a minuet), and a fourth movement with high energy that often revisits material presented in the first three sections. Haydn’s significant influence on his students, Mozart and Beethoven, also helps cement his position in the pantheon of great composers.
Some have credited the Opus 20 quartets as being the test lab for more adventurous takes on the string quartet that would follow. There is experimentation with the relationship between the instruments, for example, with the first violin sometimes taking a secondary role while the cello comes into the spotlight. In No. 25, the second movement foreshadows the sturm und drang (storm and stress) that would characterize much of the music in the Romantic era. The fourth movement is a fugue with four subjects.
With all the importance of this work, something was missing in the ISQ performance. Dynamic contrasts were sometimes missing, and phrasing seemed limp; the four young musicians played the notes but seemed to ignore the music. It was a desultory presentation that lacked energy. And despite the glorious acoustics of Spivey Hall, violinist Adrian Steele’s instrument sounded bright and steely and poorly integrated with the overall sound of the Quartet.
The second piece of the work was Awakening, the String Quartet No. 2 by Billy Childs. The work was introduced by violist Devin Moore, whose clarity of analysis and confident presentation about the music was refreshing.
Billy Childs has made his mark by fusing jazz stylings with traditional classical structures and has won four Grammys for his music and arrangements. Awakening was composed after his wife was suddenly and unexpectedly hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism roughly a decade ago. The piece is extraordinarily programmatic, and it’s easy to link the backstory to the music.
The first movement, titled “Wake up Call,” is composed of musical surprise, shock, fear, anxiety, lack of information, yearning, and confusion that one might experience when faced with a loved one’s potentially fatal illness. The second movement, “The White Room,” musically portrays the cold, unfeeling hospital treatment room with its sterile efficiency and indifferent beeps and bloops that come from machines that do their job without caring. The third movement,” Song of Healing,” is about recovering with new appreciation of what could have been lost but is regained. It is like a prayer of thanksgiving mixed with apprehensions of what might have been.
This is a work full of impact because its story is about something that could happen to any of us, and Childs did a masterful job of translating the stark reality into music. Would it have been as effective without the backstory? Probably not, but no matter, it could still stand on its own merits. The ISQ played with gusto and technical skill. What seemed almost strident in their performance of the Haydn here added to the dissonance and drive of the music, making it all that more impactful.
After intermission, the ISQ returned with Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132. This is a monumental work in the string quartet repertory. The first two movements, both variations of an “Allegro,” can easily trace their lineage to Haydn. They employ classical string quartet structures, including sonata form, and extensive thematic development. The fourth movement also harkens back to Beethoven’s teacher and is fiery and passionate.
But the great leap forward of this piece is the third movement, “molto adagio-Andante.” Here, Beethoven breaks the bonds that still tied him to the strictures of the classical period. In this movement, he creates a free-flowing outpouring of gorgeous sound that envelops the listener and seems almost formless. It is serene and transcendent, yes, but it seems untethered to the past and leaps forward to even the present day with our free-flowing sound layers. This is music where one can disengage from thought and simply exist in the same space of the music. It is pure genius, and the ISQ gave it the clarity, depth, and transparency to make this a transcendent performance. Congratulations to them for that.
Overall, despite certain shortcomings, the ISQ’s performance showcased their technical prowess and commitment to artistic expression, contributing to a memorable concert experience at Spivey Hall. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Isidore String Quartet: isidorestringquartet.com
- Spivey Hall: spiveyhall.org
Read more by William Ford.
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