New England Conservatory spotlights two alumni quartets

One of the former Clevelanders, cellist Paul Katz, took the stage of Jordan Hall Monday night to describe NEC’s Professional String Quartet Training Program to a large crowd that had gathered for this month’s installment of the free First Monday concert series. Over the last decade, Katz explained, NEC has opened its doors to one early-career ensemble every two years. The group is given a residency at the school, coaching and mentorship, and most importantly, the time and space to rehearse.

That the quartet program — and the string faculty more generally — have succeeded at attracting excellent young ensembles and helping them develop was clearly demonstrated by Monday’s performance by two alumni groups: the Parker Quartet and the Jupiter Quartet. Both foursomes are now out there climbing the ranks of young American string quartets, and making significant strides.

The Parker snapped up a Grammy this year for its Naxos recording of Ligeti’s String Quartets, and the group is now turning its attention to Haydn. Monday’s concert featured the Quartet Op. 74, No. 1. In evidence from the opening bars were the Parker’s warm and smoothly blended tone and its meticulous attention to details in balance and phrasing. The playing was lively and sleekly contoured, though it was not until the fourth movement that this performance caught fire and fully cast aside the veil of decorousness that can sometimes obscure the remarkable qualities — invention and wit, charm and fantasy — of Haydn’s quartet writing.

The Jupiter, whose most recent recording on the Marquis label surveys works by Mendelssohn and Beethoven, then took the stage with Beethoven’s magisterial late Quartet Op. 131, a work whose complexities and profundities make it daunting for ensembles of any age. Yet in a display of thoughtful and sensitive musicianship, the Jupiter delivered a performance that captured many of the work’s searching qualities and found a tender pathos in its lyricism. It was a reading that grew progressively stronger, overcoming moments of initial tentativeness to embrace the extremes of the later movements.

Of course it’s not a two-quartet party until someone breaks out the Mendelssohn Octet. And somebody did after intermission. Mendelssohn’s dazzler can be even more fun to play than it is to listen to — a kind of dessert for the hard-working quartet musician — and you could feel both the exuberance and the adrenaline fueling this performance. The Parker’s Daniel Chong laid into the demanding first violin part with pointed precision and at times explosive energy.

Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com.