Jupiter String Quartet offers an unforgettable performance
A warm welcome greeted the young and personable Jupiter String Quartet at its first major Boston concert since winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition last September. The quartet is in the first year of its two-year residency in New England Conservatory's Professional String Quartet Training Program.
The first half of its program was particularly special. The group has a pleasing stage presence: The two women, the Freivogel sisters (Megan on second violin, Elizabeth on viola), wore matching gowns of contrasting colors and sat in straight-backed chairs; the two men (Nelson Lee, first violin, and Daniel McDonough, cello) sat on piano benches. The pleasure they take in one another's musical company was palpable.
Mozart's Quartet in D, K. 499, ''Hoffmeister," displayed how well-matched the players are. Their tone quality is pleasing, their style polished, their equilibrium secure, and their intonation superb. Their sensibilities are also alert; although most of the music is forthrightly optimistic, the cheerfulness has come at a cost. The group caught that underlying sadness, as well as all of Mozart's spirit and self-confident pride in ingenious workmanship.
Shostakovich's quartets are a diary of his inner life, and the Third Quartet is one of the most annihilating. Lee gave a brief spoken introduction, pointing out how the work was the composer's response to World War II. The piece has a clear scenario, which Shostakovich later removed from the description of its five movements: ''Calm unawareness of future cataclysm," ''Unrest and anticipation," ''Forces of war unleashed," ''Homage to the dead," and ''Elemental questions of why and for what?"
After outlining the horrors the music depicts and pointing out its continuing relevance, Lee said something unfortunate: ''I hope you enjoy it."
The performance wasn't enjoyable, but it was certainly unforgettable. This group can go for broke, and it did in the churning ''Forces of war" movement, without losing its tonal center or pushing tone over the line into noise. Another rare quality is the force of the group's concentration, which carried the five movements in an unbroken arc -- an emotional arc. The piece told its story and communicated the composer's passionate emotions and bleak worldview.
After intermission came Dvorak's G-Major Quartet, Op. 106. This was fancy quartet playing, but without the unique qualities of the first two performances; perhaps it was as hard for the players to spring back from the Shostakovich as it was for listeners. It might have been better to reverse the order. The deep song and peasant dance of the music came through, but the formerly infallible intonation occasionally faltered, and fussy attention to detail obscured momentum.
In the other pieces, the Jupiter Quartet created and occupied a convincing and individual sound-world that remained in a vaguely defined international string-quartet geography rather than the specifically Slavic one of Dvorak's imagination.
Still, it felt good to be in a chamber music audience bolstered by many excited young people who greeted everything with whoops and hollers.
