MUSIC REVIEW : JUILLIARD QUARTET PLAYS J.S. BACH

Celebrating its 40th Anniversary year, the Juilliard Quaret reached back to Bach for the opening Tuesday of a three-concert series at Ambassador Auditorium. As the group explained in a program note, a little homage was in order for the awesome composer whose time preceded that of the string quartet.

What to play was not a problem for violinists Robert Mann and new member Joel Smirnoff, violist Samuel Rhodes and cellist Joel Krosnick. In what they termed a cooperative venture, the players came up with an appropriately monumental project: a setting of “The Art of the Fugue.”

Bach’s final work, which he set down as an exercise in fugal counterpoint at its highest form, is rarely performed.

For one thing, the open score he left contains no instrumentation or other markings, only notes. For another, this four-voice set of fugues and canons--all based on two themes--requires certain adjustments before a string quartet can approach it. And last, there is the implicit risk of monotony for lay listeners.

Some of us may not want to hear repeats of the full-evening extravaganza, but what the Juilliard accomplished Tuesday was impressive, both in the group’s technical solutions--using transitional Baroque bows to achieve the proper lightness, arranging for the second violin those viola notes that are too low and even having a special range-extending viola constructed--and in the inspired performance.

Here was the mighty Juilliard putting its slashing energy, rhythmic vigor and robust emoting aside. Nothing came as a greater shock than the opening “Contrapunctus,” a softly simple exposition played with a muted tone that one would never have guessed belonged to this ensemble.

Crucially, however, the four embarked on a gradual dynamic buildup. Everywhere they brought their famous expressive vitality to the cause, but transformed it to meet Baroque stylistic needs. And, more often than one could reasonably expect, the work took on shape. It boasted a clear laying out of balanced fugal lines with a telling sense of phrase and inflection.

This 40th birthday party was not just an act of scholarly genuflection. It amounted to true rejoicing.