Sunday afternoon we enjoyed the 10th performance by the Mandelring Quartett since their first for Friends in 1997. They are the best-established of what has been a generational wave of fine chamber music groups coming from Germany, with several others also appearing in Friends concerts.
Sebastian Schmidt, first violin, Nanette Schmidt, second violin, Andreas Willwohl, viola, and Bernhard Schmidt, cello, launched into Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No 3 in D Major, Op 44 No 1 with enthusiasm and warmth. The music was energetic, exuberant, and joyful, while still beautifully balanced. These artists have grown up together, and we witnessed their almost-telepathic communication as they traded motifs and phrases and brought emphasis to both harmony and melody from the score.
First violinist Sebastian used the mike to give some comments about Viktor Ullmann’s String Quartet No 3, written while the composer (a former student of Arnold Schoenberg and of Alexander von Zemlinsky) was interned for two years (1942-1944) at the Terezin Concentration Camp before being murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. Much of Ullmann’s music has been lost and this is his only surviving string quartet. Given the introduction, the music gained additional emotional power for us. As a piece of 20th Century “Modern” music, written in such circumstances, we could hear moments of pain in the music but overall, this is an emotional and taut, though very listenable, quartet. We look forward to hearing it again.
Finally, the Mandelring Quartett played Beethoven’s String Quartet No 7 in F Major, Op 59 No 1 “Razumovsky”. Now beloved and at the core of string quartet repertoire, Sebastian reminded us in his comments that its initial reception, even by musicians, was one of outrage. When this music was being rehearsed by the first group to play it in 1806, the cellist was so angry with the repetition at the start of the second movement that he threw the score on the floor and stomped on it. We received a spirited and suitably fiery performance from the Mandelring Quartet, warmly received by our audience, jumping up for an extended ovation. As an encore, the group played Bill Thorp’s delicate arrangement of the popular 1930s song “Pennies from Heaven” by Arthur Johnson.
After the concert, several audience members mentioned they’re hoping that in future the number of Vancouver concerts for Friends by the Mandelring Quartett goes to 11. (If you know, you know.)
We can now look forward to hearing Trio Bohémo on March 24, the Friends Young Musicians Competition free public concert at the Vancouver Academy of Music on March 29, and the Dover Quartet on March 31. Please look at the Friends website for more information on these events.
