Wednesday, November 1, 2000 By Donald Rosenberg, Plain Dealer Music
Critic
Nothing strikes more terror into the heart of a presenting organization
than a cancellation. The Leipzig String Quartet provoked anxiety
throughout North America last week when it withdrew from its scheduled
tour due to various illnesses.
One group that was counting on the Leipzig to open its season, the Rocky
River Chamber Music Society, managed to engage the Ciompi Quartet to do
the honors Monday at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. Let's
just say that the Leipzigers weren't missed. From its first notes, the
Ciompi dashed any thoughts of disappointment.
The group was founded in the 1960s by Giorgio Ciompi, who left his post
as head of the violin department at the Cleveland Institute of Music to
join the faculty at Duke University in Durham, N.C., where the ensemble
remains in residence. His creation is in superb hands. Violinists Eric
Pritchard and Hsiao-mei Ku, violist Jonathan Bragg and cellist Fred
Raimi work together with organic ease, interacting as if immersed in
casual or heated conversation. They produce warm, clear sonorities that
change color or emotional atmosphere as the composer requests.
Their program Monday included classical bookends: Haydn's Quartet in D
major, Op. 76, No. 5; and Beethoven's Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130;
as well as Prokofiev's Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 92, and four
Chinese folk songs arranged by Zhou Long. To each piece, the Ciompi
applied a spectrum of expressive nuances, judicious pacing and a firm
sense of structure.
The Haydn was delayed momentarily by a nearby train whistle, but once
the players entered the score's sonic world, no distractions could
interrupt the probing artistry. Here was music-making of remarkable
poise and control. Rhythms were buoyant, articulations crisp and
dynamics gauged to elegant result. The slow movement had just the right
touch of tenderness, while the final Presto revealed Haydn at his jovial
best.
In his Quartet No. 2, Prokofiev transformed Russian folk songs into a
series of typically biting and lyrical narratives. The work calls for an
approach far removed from the aristocratic aura of Haydn and the Ciompi
shifted gears with natural aplomb. The playful, sardonic pizzicatos were
beautifully centered, and Raimi's cello cadenza in the last movement was
boldly sonorous. Few composers move from the relaxed to the troubled as
vividly as Prokofiev; the Ciompi emphasized the contrasts brilliantly.
The Chinese folk songs called for the players to take yet another
musical journey. These depictions of nature are largely fragile and
shimmering, demanding utmost subtlety. The Ciompi musicians seemed
captivated by the writing, and they emitted lusty vocal exclamations in
the final piece, "A Horseherd's Mountain Song."
As if these works weren't enough, the ensemble took up Beethoven's
formidable Op. 130 on the second half. The score sounded as radical as
ever, its moody starts and stops jolting, its transporting moments
glowing. The Ciompi caressed the poetry and energized the drama. The
Rocky River Chamber Music Society couldn't have opened its 42nd season
on happier notes.
