Alexander Plays Choice Pieces Most Admirably

The Alexander String Quartet is that rare ensemble that lets its patrons vote on what they want to hear. The group asked audience members at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Monday night which three of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets they wanted to hear.

The only stricture the San Francisco-based quartet offered is that they choose ones that would represent the three stylistic periods of Beethoven’s career--early, middle and late. Last year at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, the group gave its audience the same option.

On Monday, the winners were No. 4 in C minor, Opus 18, No. 4; No. 9 in C, Opus 59, No. 3; and No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 131.

Only Beethoven initiates could probably anticipate the emotional and dramatic scope those numbers convey. No. 9 is sometimes called the “Hero” quartet, evoking a certain kind of image and character. The others have no nicknames, but No. 4 might be considered a young man’s anguished struggles against his unhappy fate. No. 14 traverses an astonishing distance, beginning in an Elysian, Bachian calm only to end in an emotional maelstrom.

The musicians--violinists Ge-Fang Yang and Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarbrough and cellist Sandy Wilson--were admirable in ensemble. They played as a tight group, carefully responding to each other, balancing lines, mirroring attacks.

At times, they were as ferociously impressive as a small group of precision fighter pilots going through aerial maneuvers at breakneck speeds. Witness the close of Quartet No 4.

Yet a degree of formality pervaded the music. It was clear, clean, well-judged. It was finely drawn, lyrical. It was not heartbreaking. It was not personal.

One wanted a little more mania, perhaps a little sloppiness, an inflection that connected, a sense that we had all had gone through a journey that changed us. It didn’t happen. There was more to admire than to embrace.

Still, it was a workout of a program for the musicians, who, although they have recorded all 16 quartets, could not have had even an hour to prepare specifically for the ones chosen that night.

Not surprisingly, given the workout of the three quartets, they didn’t give an encore. Although the audience probably would have been delighted to hear one.

The concert was jointly sponsored by the Laguna Chamber Music Society and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.