Vertavo Quartet brings fiery commitment to Winter Chamber Fest

Celebrating its 40th year, the Vertavo Quartet is likely the world’s longest-performing, all-female string quartet. Established in Norway in 1984 by four teenagers, the Vertavo Quartet still boasts three of its original members, plus British second violinist Annabelle Meare, who has been with the group for 12 years.
This continuity has clearly served the ensemble well as was manifest in the cohesive performances at their Winter Chamber Music Festival debut Friday night.
The program at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on Northwestern’s campus began with Elizabeth Maconchy’s String Quartet No. 3. Maconchy had a special affinity for string quartets, as violist Berit Cardas explained in her spoken introduction, because they represented a debate between four equally important and committed voices. Cardas called this quartet a “psychological thriller” that explores the complexity of human relationships.
The players of the Vertavo Quartet took this designation to heart and were fully committed to their respective arguments within the musical discussion. Snippets of conversation of varying intensity passed between the instruments before periodically exploding into dramatic confrontations. Even amid the violent Presto sections of this single-movement quartet, the Vertavo Quartet maintained control and beauty of tone. Cardas impressed especially with a dusky viola solo.
Ravel’s familiar String Quartet in F Major provided a breath of fresh air in its sweeping opening phrase, which the quartet shaped tastefully with subtle rubato. The Allegro moderato bubbled with forward momentum, while first violinist Øyvor Volle and Cardas demonstrated lovely unity of tone in the modal second theme, played in octaves. The sotto voce echo of the opening phrase in the recapitulation was also beautifully rendered.
Resonant pizzicati were complemented by Volle’s gleaming solo tone in Ravel’s charming scherzo, while cellist Bjørg Lewis brought out the instrument’s rich low sonorities in the slow movement. The ensemble came apart slightly in the agitated finale, where the push and pull of the tempo were not always in complete agreement among the musicians.
The program concluded with Britten’s dense String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, composed in 1945 to honor the 250th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell. If you were expecting something akin to Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, also in tribute to Purcell and composed in the same year, you’d be sorely mistaken.
Britten wrote the quartet following a concert tour with violinist Yehudi Menuhin of Bergen-Belsen and other concentration camps shortly after Germany’s surrender. Although not intended to be a commentary on the conditions he witnessed there, the work’s extreme seriousness suggests the experience weighed heavy on his mind.
In the opening melody of the Allegro, Britten mixes the ancient and the modern in his characteristic way. While there are nods to the baroque throughout the rest of the movement, such as a violin ostinato and lute-like strumming in the cello, the remainder of the work lies firmly within a 20th-century soundscape.
After a brief yet violent Vivace comes the meat of the quartet and the most explicit nod to Purcell. Double the length of the first two movements combined, the Chacony finale presents 21 variations on a theme. In this passacaglia, each of the variations is punctuated by a wild solo cadenza, which allowed each player to showcase their dramatic range. Lewis’s unaccompanied solo cadenza was especially inspired.
Britten’s toe-curling dissonances, combined with slightly ragged tuning in the most impassioned sections, made for an intense listening experience. However, a shimmering trio in the upper strings over the strumming of the cello provided a welcome reprieve, leading into a more lyrical section to close.
In her spoken introduction before the Britten, Cardas said that in playing this piece, they “come out completely different people.” It is no wonder given the work’s intense emotional journey and musical demands, which the Vertavo Quartet executed with assuredness and commitment.
The Viano Quartet performs music of Haydn, Penderecki, Kernis and Beethoven 3 p.m. Sunday at the Winter Chamber Music Festival. music.northwestern.edu
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