Photo: Christian Steiner
Hancher collaborated with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program (with further support from the Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Program) to bring the Brentano String Quartet to campus October 12–17, 2015. They performed a public show on October 17 at Riverside Recital Hall.
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It's hard to find enough superlatives to describe the quartet and their music.
Mel Sunshine
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The best string quartet I have ever heard. Thanks for providing us with this experience.
Eunice and Bob Welsh
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The Brentanos were, of course, magnificent. And I love Riverside, even though a lot of people complain that it's old and uncomfortable. My main complaint about all of the Hancher-hosted events at Riverside is that for some reason the Hancher staff don't know how to dim the lights. This seems like a very basic aspect of hosting a concert. More than once, the performers took the stage after intermission to discover that the audience members were unaware that intermission was ending and they were milling around. This happened last season and also on Saturday night. I think this is disrespectful to the performers, and embarrassing to the audience. Would you please ensure that your staff is trained in how to formally end intermission by flashing the lights in the lobby? They should also be dimming the lights during the performance.
Rebecca Durkee
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1. I was astounded and delighted to hear the sections from Art of Fugue. I have played Art of Fugue in string quartet format for some years and have found it always to be illuminating. I found their approach to it to be one in which the 4 voices were not always separately perceptible. That is, the whole seemed to subsume the separate lines. That was certainly intentional, achieved by the technique (playing without vibrato and tending to a flautando bowing) but I myself prefer to hear a little more of the separate voices simultaneously.
2. The Britten, which I have not listened to for 40 years or more, was a revelation and wonderfully presented.
3. I liked the Brahms very much. Their moderation as to tempo and their depiction of the complexities of the work made it a great pleasure for me to hear, and contrasted a bit with the modern vogue to play the Brahms quartets in a more dramatic or bombastic manner. I was especially moved by the presentation of the inner two movements. The last movement seemed to me to be a little more difficult to absorb, perhaps because of the pacing. I like to hear each variation set out a bit more, separated from its fellows, so that the series of variations becomes a sort of journey through varying landscapes. I did not feel that to my full satisfaction. Maybe I was tired.
4. Overall, these are musicians who play with deepest respect and love for the music, clearly with the principal idea of presenting the beauty of the music itself to the listeners rather than demonstrating themselves to be virtuoso performers. And, overall, I liked very much the balance of the program as a whole. This is a wonderfully mature ensemble, and to my mind perhaps the best on the current scene if the program I heard is representative.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to comment.
James Christensen
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Innovative program and outstanding performance!
Gene Savin
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Wonderful concert. What a crowd and glad we went early with our cushions. Can't wait to hear chamber groups perform in the new building.
Nancy Granner
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The concert was splendid. I particularly enjoyed the Britten quartet, which I had never heard before. Thanks to Hancher for bringing these distinguished musicians.
Alice Davison
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I thought it was a good concert. They are so talented. The selections were educational and interesting to listen to.
Loris Metzger
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We, in Iowa City are the fortunate recipients of the recently formed quartet program so brilliantly engineered by Beth Oaks. This program brought to the campus three outstanding young quartets last year for a residency which included a week of each quartet member working with string students individually as well as in chamber music groups. Each week of residency concluded with a stunning quartet concert by the visiting quartet.
Obviously, last year was no fluke. Last week the visiting quartet was the renowned Brentano. They created a program, unusual in many aspects not only from the different musical periods represented but also for the contrasting musical harmonies and string "sounds." For those of us familiar with Bach's Art of Fugue, usually heard from the piano or organ, the four stringed instruments played each line clearly, but with such a fine sense of ensemble that The Art of Fugue became no longer a musical treatise in composition, but a deep musical experience.
The four members of the Brentano play as if they were one and not four musicians. There is never the all too common prima donna first violin sound that becomes just a bit sharp as though the composition calls for a solo voice. This was true, whether they were sharing the modern Britten or the lush sounds of the Brahms with the audience. When a solo voice was heard it arose logically from within the composition and always remained a part of the whole.
I am moved to say a "thank you" to all of those who make this program possible, not only for the students but now for the public as well. I wonder just how many realize that we have the privilege of hearing the very top quartets of our day. The Brentano certainly proved to be in that select group.
Helene Jolas Soper
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It was a beautiful performance of an excellent, somewhat unusual, program. The highlight came at the very beginning, when the group played three segments, of increasing complexity, of Bach’s “Art of the Fugue.” What was really special about it was that the first violinist clearly explained the structure of all three fugues, so that the audience could follow them.
Also highly commendable were the beautifully done solo parts of the Brahms Op. 67 string quartet; I am thinking of the soaring solo line for the second violin in the 2nd movement, and the dominating role of the viola in the third. Brahms would have been proud of it.
Joseph Frankel