MUSIC REVIEWS : FITZWILLIAM GROUP AT AMBASSADOR

Beethoven’s final completed work--the F-major Quartet, Opus 135--has confounded its share of players and listeners. Judging from the Fitzwilliam Quartet’s performance at Ambassador Auditorium on Thursday, the English ensemble must be added to a list of the bewildered.

Rather than probe the otherworldly depths of the slow movement, rather than revel in the unexpected giddiness of the outer movements (particularly that final, delicious coda), the Fitzwilliam seemed content to merely play the notes.

The notes were played faultlessly by the group--Daniel Zisman and Jonathan Sparey, violins; Alan George, viola, and Ioan Davies, cello. But in choosing a small canvas on which to work, the players left no room to explore musical detail or convey a point of view.

Conversely, the self-pitying sobbings of Tchaikovsky’s Third Quartet seemed to be just the Fitzwilliam’s cup of tea.

Though these are decidely no-nonsense performers--both in their middle-ground interpretive stance and in their restrained stage manner--the players seemed at home in Tchaikovsky’s emotional outpourings. Here was a strongly unified ensemble voice, lifted by lush, energized playing.

The group’s picqued interest was evidenced by a reading of the slushy Andante that proved more moving than Beethoven’s substantially superior Lento assai.

Shostakovich’s first string quartet was written at the relatively advanced age of 32--and it shows. Far from being a naive little four-part exercise (a la Mozart or Schubert), the music bears the unmistakable stamp of a mature master. Though the brief work made an unlikely curtain-raiser, with its sedate pair of darkly hued opening movements, the Fitzwilliam brought out all of its charm and craft.