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On Friday evening, May 13, the locally based Cypress String Quartet performed one of their last Salon Series concerts at Berkeley’s Maybeck Studio. The group will disband later this year after 20 glorious years together. To celebrate their anniversary they put together a program of works each member of the quartet particularly liked. First on the program was violinist Cecily Ward’s choice, Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 20, No. 1. Composed in 1772, this work influenced many later composers, including Mozart and Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. In the opening movement, marked Allegro moderato, the first violin exchanges phrases with the cello in the opening measures. Then the other instruments chime in, trading phrases among all four members of the group. There is a graceful exuberance to Haydn’s writing in this piece. The minuet that follows is dainty and charming. A beautiful slow movement follows, with the group led by first violinist Cecily Ward’s luscious account of this movement’s glorious melodies. The fourth and final movement begins with great agitation, but in typical Haydn fashion soon transforms itself into an exuberant finale. 

Next on the program was cellist Jennifer Kloetzel’s choice, Dan Coleman’s String Quartet No. 3, a work commissioned by the Cypress Quartet. They have commissioned 640 works over 20 years. A few years back, say, around 2012, I was given a sampler CD put out by the Cypress Quartet. Among the works on it was a Lullaby by Dan Coleman, an excerpt from his Second String Quartet, which was also commissioned by the Cypress Quartet. I loved this Lullaby by Dan Coleman and longed to hear more of his music. Thus, I was very happy to have the opportunity to hear the Cypress Quartet perform Coleman’s Third String Quartet. This is a twelve-tone work that immediately reminded me of Alban Berg’s lovely Lyric Suite Quartet. Yet it also reminded me of Bela Bartók’s quartets, which I also love. Dan Coleman structured this 17-minute work around three sets of duets, with tutti ensembles interspersed throughout. It opens with a duet from the first and second violins, Cecily Ward and Tom Stone making wonderful music together. Then Jennifer Kloetzel’s cello joins in. A few measures later, the second violin drops out and a duet ensues between cello and first violin. After a pregnant pause, Ethan Filner’s viola enters, joined by the cello and first violin. Soon a duet ensues between viola and first violin. When Tom Stone’s second violin joins in, Cecily Ward drops out and a duet ensues between second violin and viola. Suddenly, the cello sounds an ominous low note, and thus begins an ensemble finale, which includes, however, one final brief duet between cello and viola. All in all, I found this String Quartet No. 3 by Dan Coleman an exhilarating work, full of imagination, challenge, and angular lyricism. Dan Coleman, it seems to me, is a major voice among contemporary composers. 

By the way, Coleman’s String Quartet No. 3 is dedicated to his friend, Jeffery Cotton, also a composer. Cotton, who died an untimely death a few years ago, was given a tribute in the next work played in this concert by the Cypress Quartet. Introduced by violist Ethan Filner, this was a brief excerpt, the second movement, from Cotton’s String Quartet No. 1. Cotton styled this as a Capriccio and paid tribute to cabaret music in writing this movement, which featured some bright phrases from the first violin accompanied by pizzicato plucking from the viola. 

After intermission, the group returned to perform Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet of 1903. In introducing this quartet, violinist Tom Stone noted that Ravel was influenced by Javanese gamelan music he heard a few years earlier at the Paris World’s Fair of 1899. Yet in spite of this exoticism, Stone asserted, Ravel’s quartet manages to be quintessentially French in spirit. I quite agree. I recall hearing it on my car radio one beautiful Spring day while driving in France. In a tiny village in a non-touristy corner of the Loire Valley, I stopped and simply sat in my car listening to Ravel’s shimmering music while looking out my open window at Spring flowers in a lovely country garden by a brook. It was a magical moment.  

The first movement, marked Allegro moderato, opens with an agitated phrase but the music soon dissolves into shimmering lyricism. A gracious theme is developed in several variations. The second movement, a vibrant Scherzo, opens with pizzicato plucking from all four instruments. Although influenced by Ravel’s hearing of Javanese gamelan music, the recurring pizzicato passages in this movement always strike me as quintessentially French, and I associate them with the bubbling of a brook tumbling over rocks, the water glistening in the sunlight. The third movement is slow and graceful; and the final movement opens with a very agitated phrase, yet, like this work’s first movement, the initial agitation soon subsides as lyrical themes from the first movement are now recalled and given new variations. Throughout this lovely work, the Cypress String Quartet beautifully rendered the rich coloration of Ravel’s musical palette. If the Cypress String Quartet must now disband, after 20 glorious years together, this Ravel Quartet was a wonderful farewell gift to the group’s faithful audience.  

However, there are a few more opportunities to hear the Cypress Quartet in concert. They have three more concerts in their ongoing free series of Beethoven quartets played at various outdoor venues throughout San Francisco. On Monday, May 16, they will perform Beethoven’s Op. 131 quartet at 11:00 am at Sutro Baths near the Cliff House. On Tuesday at 1:00 pm they will perform Beethoven’s Op. 59, No. 3 quartet at the Botannical Gardens at Golden Gate Park and 9^th Avenue. And last but not least, they will perform Beethoven’s Op. 130 quartet and Die Grosse Fugue at Yerba Buena Gardens at 2:00 pm. In addition, there will be a Farewell Concert by the Cypress Quartet at Taube Theatre in the War Memorial Building on the weekend of the Gay Pride Parade in late June.