Music Reviews : Vermeer Quartet Closes Chamber Series

Two concerts may not constitute a trend, but for the second week in a row a first violinist went missing in string quartet action at the Ford Amphitheatre. Monday it was Shmuel Ashkenasi fading in and out of the Vermeer Quartet fabric, in the closing event of the Nakamichi Chamber Concerts.

It is tempting to attribute the now-you-hear-him, now-you-don’t effects to the acoustic environment. But that makes accounting for the ready projection of the others--violinist Pierre Menard, violist Richard Young and cellist Marc Johnson--a little tricky.

As with the Angeles Quartet the previous week, it was a progressive problem. The generally suave opening Mozart appeared equitably balanced, while the passionately heaving Mendelssohn at evening’s end sounded like a trio at times. More than just the development of quartet styles seemed at work here.

The Vermeer approach to Mozart’s E-flat Quartet, K. 428, proved generously lyrical, even tempered and largely astylistic. It sprang to life in the Minuetto, varied weirdly in color and texture after the Trio section but nicely characterized.

Mendelssohn’s E-minor Quartet from Opus 44 was treated with a ripe Tchaikovskian romanticism, suitable perhaps for the opening movement but too heavy for much of what followed. The Scherzo thundered where it should have sparkled--impressive, but for the wrong reasons--and the increasingly blurred line between foreground and background compromised the Andante and Presto.

Janacek’s “Intimate Letters” Quartet, however, demands just that kind of undeferential performance. The Vermeer ensemble made it the easy highlight of the concert with vigorous, pointed playing, fully independent in spirit but assured in ensemble, inconsistent intonation aside. The often grainy sound of the group was most appropriate in this music, and the vivid portraits and interactive dramas were delivered with a purposeful intensity, alert to all the folksy nuances.