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The Friends of Chamber Music opened its 2008-09 concert season Friday evening at the Folly Theatre with a pre-concert reception and art exhibit titled appropriately, Art of Unrest.Key to the evening's program, presented masterfully by the Brentano String Quartet, was the central piece, Howl written in 1993 by composer Lee Hyla, a quartet written to accompany the recorded voice of Alan Ginsburg reading his strident poem of that title which catapulted him to fame when he first read it in public at a San Francisco art gallery in 1955. The exhibit of edgy artwork ranged from a collage of 9/11 events to images of homeless people, and from a display of pairs of shoes belonging to people of all ages killed in the Iraq War, to banners with statistics about the cost of that war in terms of lost college educations for Americans. Before one note of the program sounded, the stage was set to challenge listeners to embark upon this year's theme, "An Epic Journey."

Celebrating its 33rd season, President and Founder of The Friends, Cynthia Siebert, offered her greetings from the stage, and prepared the audience to receive this controversial work within the framework of her artistic vision: to inform and expand the listeners' ability to discern and appreciate the beauty and art of chamber music. Siebert remarked from the stage that the art on exhibit took its theme and title, Art of Unrest, as a complement to the music presented in the program. Like a nurturing muse grooming her progeny, she gently suggested that the art of unrest "stems from some creative urge that you feel has not been defined before." Elaborating the point, she mentioned that the composer revered today as "Papa Haydn" was in his day considered a revolutionary, as was Schumann, and she encouraged the audience to hold this music within that expanded context.

"Papa Haydn" was in his day considered a revolutionary, as was Schumann...

The program opened with Haydn's String Quartet No. 26 in G Minor, Op. 20, No. 3, which introduced the audience to the elegant blend of the Brentano String Quartet and its immaculate attention to direction of line. The Quartet, whose name honors the "Immortal Beloved" of Beethoven, Antonie Brentano, held the audience spellbound to the lastpianissimo note of the first movement, met by a hushed "wow!" that escaped someone's lips in the dark of the concert hall. The quartet seemed to open into the space of the hall in the lighter second movement, revealing exquisite balance throughout, and delivering a fluid B section. The third movement, poco adagio, showcased the ensemble's seamless blend of sonority, but was taken in a tempo that moved a bit too quickly to allow complete expression of its profound depth, which violist Misha Amory, alone brought out in his statement of the melodic line. Remarkable in the fourth movement was the blend of sound so equal in tone that one had to look at the performers to discern which instrument was playing. Performed in a rousing allegro with edge-of-the-seat excitement, this movement, too, ended in a vanishing diminuendo. It was revolutionary, indeed, to find pianissimoendings in every movement of the work.

Sandwiched between the sublimely beautiful Haydn quartet, and the expressively romantic Schumann String Quartet in A Major, Op. 41 No. 3, that comprised the second half of the program, the Hyla Howl for Narrator and String Quartet (un)easily stole the show. At the beginning of Howl, for several minutes the angry and annoying tenor of Alan Ginsberg's incessant raving, spewing rant of invectives cut above the jagged string accompaniment and caused one to wish that the Quartet would drown away his noise. The tension created by Ginsberg's words and delivery was palpable, slapping at the audience with raw rude rhetoric. In tandem to that source of irritation was an equally disjointed jabbing of strings, in howling competition with Ginsberg's rhythms, and independently annoying. Howl is a long one, lasting 25 minutes. As the barrage of aural assault continued, the initial shock of hearing so many obscene words shouted above a string quartet gradually yielded to the awareness that when Ginsberg's voice slowed down, the Quartet mellowed their atonal exclamations and modulated into a quieter morph of sound. As he increased his volume again, shouting about Brooklyn buildings, jails and war, the Qrtet again breathed fire with him. As he yammered on and on, the thought occurred that this sounds like rap - with string quartet. In fact, this poem ushered in the Beat movement in 1955. By the time Ginsberg's recorded voice reached the passage about stumbling into unemployment offices, suicidal, the strings became a quiet background companion, and the realization hit that the quartet was accompanying his text masterfully, following his every nuance of breath and tone as masterfully as Gerald Moore would follow Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - Hyla's art was realized perfectly by the Brentano Quartet. Their ensemble playing was genius-level virtuosity. String rhythms exactly mirrored the rhythm of Ginsberg's voice, then alternated juxtapositions of syncopated words, and finally faded the movement softly to its conclusion. The audience rustled uneasily, as faces turned to one another with expressions ranging from mirth to shock, annoyance to disbelief. Instead of rising for applause, the quartet members turned the pages on their stands to the next movement. In that hushed instant, a loud whisper emanated from an audience member warning, "We're not done," providing a moment of comic relief. The shorter second movement ended with a gradual softening of dynamics that finally faded into silence; the common thread to all the movements of the evening's program. 

Champagne and chocolates were provided to continue the opening night celebrations during the 20-minute intermission, affording members of the audience ample time to view the exhibit and to discuss the music. If the goal of the program was to open conversations to controversial issues, this concert program was wildly successful. The concert was rounded out by the sweet soothing balm of the Schumann quartet, beautifully rendered in the Brentano's superb organic blend.

REVIEW
Who: Brentano String Quartet presented by The Friends of Chamber Music
When: Friday, October 3, 2008
Where: The Folly Theatre
Attendance: 400
www.chambermusic.org

By Gayle G. Hathorne

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)