Arts & Events

On Sunday afternoon, September 25, Dover Quartet, which was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as “one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years,” performed at UC Berkeley’s Hertz Hall under the auspices of Cal Performances. Dover Quartet is comprised of Joel Link, 1st violin, Bryan Lee, 2nd violin, Hezekiah Leung, viola, and Camden Shaw, cello. On the program for this concert were Franz Joseph Haydn’s Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3, Emperor; the Quartet for Strings (in one movement) by Amy Beach; and Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, No. 3. 

Haydn’s Emperor Quartet is so named for its slow second movement based on a hymn Haydn had just composed in January 1797 in honour of Austria’s Emperor Franz II. This quartet’s opening movement is in sonata-form and uses a simple five-note motive to generate a lively series of variations on this theme. Energy is provided by the vigorous dotted rhythms. The second movement also proceeds on a single theme, the hymn asking God’s protection of Emperor Franz II. Each member of the Dover Quartet took up this noble theme in turn, until the final variation offered the theme in the high register of Joel Link’s 1st violin. The third movement is a Menuetto that starts out in a major key then moves into a minor mode for the Trio section. The fourth and final movement is a stormy sonata-form Finale set in C minor rather than the home key of C Major. Along the way, abrasive multi-stopped chords dominate this stormy Finale, strenuously performed here by Dover Quartet, along with frenzied triplet rhythms, until near the end Haydn returns to the home key of C Major. 

Next on the program was Amy Beach’s Quartet for Strings (in one movement). Amy Beach, an American composer who lived from 1867 to 1944, is to my mind one of the greatest unheralded American composers. I first encountered her work while listening to a late-night broadcast on the Bay Area’s classical music radio station KDFC. What I heard that night was Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto, which struck me as endlessly inventive, brimming with technical virtuosity, and full of surprises. Though a consummate pianist herself, Amy Beach’s husband limited her public appearances to two a year. After her husband’s death in 1910, Amy Beach turned to the MacDowell Colony for Artists in New Hampshire to introduce many of her compositions to the public.  

Amy Beach’s Quartet for Strings is based on Inuit themes, which enables the composer to break from the late Romantic style and explore more modern harmonics. It opens with a dark, brooding passage marked Grave that avoids any sense of key and proceeds dissonantly. Then Dover Quartet’s violist Hezekiah Leung sings the “Summer Song” with its Inuit melody in G minor. This viola solo will be heard two more times. However, Joel Link’s 1st violin plays the second Inuit melody, “Playing at Ball.” This slow section closes with a repeat of the viola’s “Summer Song.” 

Moving to a faster rhythm, a third Inuit melody is heard: “Ititaujang’s Song,” which is joined by fragments of the other two Inuit songs. A high-speed fugue then closes this section. Harsh, dissonant chords then announce a return to the Grave opening motive, which strikes a meditative note that persists to the close with a return of the viola’s opening theme. Throughout this stark, dissonant work, Dover Quartet’s violist Hezekiah Leung played beautifully and was highlighted in this splendid Amy Beach Quartet for Strings. 

After intermission Dover Quartet returned to perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, No. 3. This work, given the number 3 among the Op. 44 quartets, is actually the second to be completed by Mendelssohn, who put the finishing touches to it the day before his first child was born in February 1838. The high-spirited opening movement, marked Allegro vivace, offers a dazzling array of elements, with the 1st violin leading the way and often followed by the cello. In the recapitulation section, the 2nd violin takes the lead. Finally, the viola takes the lead accompanied by pizzicato from the other three instruments. 

The second movement is a splendid Scherzo which shows off Mendelssohn’s mastery of Bach’s legacy of counterpoint. A humorous fugue is almost turned into a complex double fugue with a chromatically descending countersubject. The third movement, marked Adagio non troppo, is a lovely slow movement in A-flat Major though hinting at minor mode shadows throughout. The fourth and final movement, marked Molto allegro con fuoco, sparkles with superficial brilliance that somehow never rises to the sublime achievements of this quartet’s first three movements. 

All in all, however, Dover Quartet offered a masterful rendition of this strikingly successful string quartet by Felix Mendelssohn.