Review: Cuarteto Latinoamericano

February 2, 2009 • Reviews • 0 • Previous | Next

Saturday evening, Cuarteto Latinoamericano was in town to give a concert of Latin American music at The Music Room. Those that decided not to brave the elements missed out on an evening full of delightful surprises.

Since forming in 1982, the Cuarteto has focussed its energy on recording practically all the string quartet repertoire by Latin American composers including Ginastera, Villa-Lobos and Piazzolla.

In addition to its provenance, the music on Saturday’s concert was all written between 1948 and 1993. What is interesting about this is that although the pieces were thoroughly modern, there was very little evidence of the serialism or minimalism that so heavily influenced the American and European art music of this time period.

The concert opened with Quartet No. 2 by Brazilian composer Francesco Mignone (1897-1986). Rapid changes in mood, thematic material and the tonal centre were expertly handled and, in very short order, the Cuarteto showcased their rock-solid technique, moving effortlessly from staccato to legato passages over the whole dynamic range.

The final movement was called Desafio, which means literally: a challenge. As second violinist Aron BitrÃ¡n explained, the word refers to the idea of men outdoing each other with spectacular displays of bravado. The Cuarteto did not disappoint. With bows flying and flurries of notes being tossed off as if they were beginner exercises, the quartet brought Mignone’s piece to a thrilling close.

When we think of Spanish culture, we think of the paso doble, tango and flamenco but for the 800 years before the Spanish Inquisition most of the country was ruled by the Moors, who brought their Arab culture with them. It was the music of this culture that influenced Spanish-Canadian composer José Evangelista to write Spanish Garland in 1993. The music is without harmony and is instead about overlapping textures, colour and melodic ornamentation. The result is a mesmerizing sensation of the music drifting in and out of consonance almost at random.

Osvaldo Golijov is a rather hot commodity at the moment in the contemporary art music world. His idiom is informed by several contradictory forces. Golijov was born of Eastern European Jews in officially-Catholic Argentina, studied music in Jerusalem and now lives in the United States.

Written in 1992, Yiddishbbuk was an attempt to recreate fragments of apocryphal Psalms that Franz Kafka once owned. It’s a rather esoteric reference but it was the music that presented more of a problem.

The piece started with lots of dissonance and busy work, continued on to a more reflective middle bit and then concluded with many fortissimo chords and some unison passages. Yiddishbbuk ticked all the right boxes but failed to connect with my head or my heart.

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) is also from Argentina but spent considerable time living in the United States and Europe. His String Quartet No.2 was a fitting end to a well-thought-out program.

BitrÃ¡n again gave very helpful tour of the piece beforehand and revealed that the harmony was based on the open strings of a guitar (EADGBE). The last movement in particular was particularly vibrant and left me feeling compelled to learn more about Ginastera’s music.

Hearing something completely 100% new is unusual in classical music and while not all the pieces caught my attention, the concert was a great reminder of what treasures await those willing to search them out.

Next String Quartet Concert: Zemlinsky Quartet playing Mozart K465 ‘Dissonant’; Zemlinsky SQ No.4 and Smetana SQ No.2 & Friday 13th February, 8pm @ The Music Room, Waterloo.