Music Reviews : ‘Music for Mischa’ Program at Schoenberg Hall

Late Beethoven requires a great deal from its listeners, even more from its performers. A daunting challenge, then, this latest “Music for Mischa” program at Schoenberg Hall, UCLA: two of Beethoven’s last string quartets, his Opus 132 in A minor and Opus 131 in C-sharp minor.

The players in Sunday’s installment of the series--honoring the late Mischa Schneider, cellist of the Budapest Quartet--are all veteran Los Angeles chamber musicians; violinist Miwako Watanabe and cellist Robert Martin, both formerly of the Sequoia Quartet, were joined by violinist Joseph Genualdi and violist Michael Nowak. They proved a tightly knit, warmly expressive ensemble, well up to the demands, both technical and spiritual, of the music at hand.

The concert began with the A-minor Quartet, in a performance of unabating intensity. The players brought warm lyricism to each of their parts, the simplest accompaniment participating in every nuance of the leading line. This unanimity of phrasing, the balance in feeling, gave the music strong, surging direction and fervent expression.

Yet no moment seemed overwrought or overemphasized; each idea was given its emotional due and flowed naturally onto the next. Contrasts were never made to display the players’ virtuosity. The performance, and the concert, peaked with the central movement Adagio, its religious feeling delivered beautifully with subtle color changes, poised balances and concentrated emotionalism.

What can satisfactorily follow such a performance of the A-minor Quartet? Probably nothing.

The C-sharp minor Quartet couldn’t, and didn’t, leave as strong an impression, even though the playing was near the same level of excellence. Singing lines, urgent phrasing and precise ensemble characterized this reading. The players built the music steadily towards the cathartic finale, which they addressed with remarkable aggressiveness and passion. But one listener, at least, found the pairing of these two works too much of a good thing.