July 6, 2025
Lewis Hall, Village Green Commons
Cashiers, NC – USA
The Viano Quartet; Paul Coletti, viola/composer.
Paul COLETTI: Moonlight Journey
W.A. MOZART: String Quartet in G Major K.387, “Spring”
Paul COLETTI: The Pawn Who Dreamed Of Becoming A Queen(Viola Quintet)
Felix MENDELSSOHN: Viola Quintet in B♭ Major, Op.87
July 7, 2025
Lipscomb Theatre, Highlands Performing Arts Center
Highlands, NC – USA
The Viano Quartet; Yinzi Kong, viola; Charae Krueger, cello.
Josef HAYDN: String Quartet in D Major Op.76/5 “Largo”
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 9, Op 117
Johannes BRAHMS: String Sextet in G Major
Mark Gresham | 9 JUL 2025
The air in the western North Carolina mountains carried the scent of pine and rhododendron this past weekend in quiet anticipation of chamber music as the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival opened its 2025 season. EarRelevant attended a pair of programs that featured the Viano Quartet — violinists Hao Zhou and Lucy Wang, violist Aiden Kane, and cellist Tate Zawadiuk — in their H-CCMF debut.
The first was an evocative, genre-spanning program in Lewis Hall at Village Green Commons, featuring the Viano Quartet joined by violist and composer Paul Coletti. The concert offered a deft balance of Classical elegance of music by Mozart and Mendelssohn, but it was Coletti’s presence, both as performer and composer, that gave the evening its distinctive shape. Two of his original works framed a Mozart quartet in the first half, offering glimpses into a compositional voice as fluent in narrative as it is in technique.
Opening the concert was Coletti’s Moonlight Journey, for two violas, performed by the composer and Kane. Hardly a passive nightscape, its musical dialogue evoked a wide range of shifting inner emotional states over its eight-minute duration.
The Viano Quartet then brought energy to Mozart’s String Quartet in G Major, K. 387, known as the “Spring” quartet. The group’s phrasing was crisp and conversational, particularly in the opening “Allegro vivace assai,” which danced with buoyancy.
Coletti then joined the ensemble for the North Carolina premiere of Coletti’s one-movement string quintet, The Pawn Who Dreamed of Becoming a Queen, inspired by the game of chess. It is a work brimming with ambition, tension, and transformation that features both narrative drive and playful invention.
The five musicians closed the evening with Felix Mendelssohn’s Viola Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 87, a work of youthful exuberance and symphonic sweep. Particularly compelling was the second movement, “Andante scherzando,” where they navigated Mendelssohn’s intricate textures and sudden harmonic shifts with confidence. The “Allegro molto vivace,” finale closed the work with a burst of finely wrought energy that capped the quintet’s combination of lyricism, virtuosity, and classical poise.
L-R: Hao Zhou, Lucy Wang, Tate Zawadiuk, Paul Coletti and Aiden Kane in Lewis Hall at Village Green Commons, in the 2025 Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival. (credit: William Ransom)
The second program brought listeners into the Lipscomb Theatre on Monday evening, where violist Yinzi Kong and cellist Charae Krueger joined the Viano Quartet for a program that moved confidently between Classical clarity, Soviet intensity, and Romantic breadth.
The evening opened with the Viano Quartet performing Josef Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 76, No. 5, a work known for its serene second movement — the “Largo” that gives the piece its nickname. The Viano Quartet approached the music in a forthright manner, allowing Haydn’s music to speak for itself. The outer movements shimmered with brightness and wit, while the famed “Largo” sang with simplicity.
From there, the mood shifted dramatically. Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 117 stands in stark contrast — a five-movement journey of nervous energy, haunted memory, and barely suppressed defiance. The Viano players leaned into the work’s angular rhythms and eerie sonorities with unflinching energy. So much so that violinist Hao Zhou broke a string, requiring an abrupt halt to the music, and a pause while he went backstage to replace it. Nevertheless, the performance of the work was particularly gripping. The quartet conveyed not just the music’s turmoil but its internal contradictions: sardonic humor in one moment, spectral lament in the next.
After intermission, the ensemble expanded to a sextet with the addition of Kong and Krueger for Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet in G Major, a work brimming with lyrical generosity and structural ingenuity. The group captured the piece’s introspective spirit and occasional folk-like charm without losing the thread of Brahmsian density.
The second movement, a set of variations on a brooding minor-key theme, served as the emotional heart of the performance. The ensemble allowed each variation to unfold with clarity and character, from somber reflections to stormy climaxes. The final movement, with its blend of dancing rhythms and contrapuntal finesse, offered a satisfying close to an evening that balanced delicacy and power in equal measure.
Taken together, Sunday and Monday’s performances reinforced the Festival’s reputation for thoughtful programming and excellent artistry. Both were received warmly by the audience. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival: h-cmusicfestival.org
- Viano Quartet: vianoquartet.com
Read more by Mark Gresham.
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