Schidlof Quartet Ends Tour With Grace and Wit

Enthusiastic press reports about the Schidlof Quartet have been crossing the Atlantic almost since the group was formed five years ago. Recordings of Shostakovich and Dvorak have lent credence to all the superlatives, and now the ensemble itself has arrived.

Its American debut tour closed Sunday afternoon with a pair of lively, intelligent performances for the Da Camera Society at the Craftsman-style Lanterman House in La Canada Flintridge.

The U.K.-based quartet is named in memory of Peter Schidlof, violist of the Amadeus Quartet. The four musicians heard Sunday are not the same, however, as on the disc. A recent change has brought cellist Bridget MacRae into the fold to join violinists Ofer Falk and Rafael Todes and violist Graham Oppenheimer.

There has been scant loosening of the ensemble web. In the bright and exposing acoustic of the Lanterman ballroom, the Schidlof sounded rich and expressive, its individual characters integrated but not at all repressed. The collective sound is big and boldly deployed, but this is not another of the quartets-with-attitude we meet so often now.

Of course, there was nothing hectoring or out-sized on the intermission-free programs. Instead there were abundant opportunities for grace, wit--which the Schidlofs treat deadpan, by the way--warmth and reflection. Only in the finale of Mendelssohn’s E-flat Quartet, Opus 12, did they get a chance to unload, and even there the vehemence was tempered by abidingly sober purpose.

This is a quartet that really looks after each note and the spaces between. Its account of Mozart’s B-flat “Hunt” Quartet, K. 458, was a model of elegant, articulate, rhythmically pointed lyricism, unabashed in sentiment and style.

If the Schidlofs tended toward a riper, more romantic view of Mozart than do many others today, their almost classically poised Puccini pulled back the other way. The elegiac “Chrysanthemums” never benefits from exaggeration and the Schidlof interpretation demonstrated how restraint--plus taut, immaculate ensemble and darkly glowing tone--actually enhances its emotional power.

For encore the Schidlof gave us the finale of Dvorak’s “American” Quartet in a vividly dancing performance, pinpoint in execution and unfettered in spirit.