Fiery Readings of Schubert, Barber by Auryn Quartet

According to their bio, Cologne’s Auryn Quartet took its name from a talisman that bestows on its owner great powers of imagination and inspiration. Not a bad omen for their energetic Los Angeles debut, Friday night at the Doheny Mansion as part of the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College’s Chamber Music in Historic Sites series.

With three Germans (violinists Matthias Lingenfelder and Jens Oppermann and cellist Andreas Arndt) and one Englishman (violist Steuart Eaton) manning the ranks, the Auryn aims more for headlong intensity than genteel, polished textures. Even on the relatively genial ground of Haydn’s Quartet in E flat, Opus 71, No. 3, these guys dig in with a dark-shaded muscular approach, leaning heavily into many of the phrasings.

Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet may proliferate on CD, but isn’t heard that often live, perhaps due to its sprawling dimensions. The Auryn brought it in at a comfortable time span by skipping the first movement repeat and, more important, giving it a rough-hewn, tough-it-out, visceral rendition, with a finale in which they were willing to sacrifice some precision for even more fierceness.

In between these Austrian works and a Haydn encore was Barber’s String Quartet in B Minor, a piece of almost unspeakable anguish that is best known as the source of a famous elegy that occupies about half of its length, the Adagio for Strings. The Auryn took the Adagio at an agonizingly slow pace, drawing it out almost to the breaking point, yet maintaining just enough tension. It was heart-rending--just as intended.